[Lexicog] Turkey

[Mike Maxwell]

The Received Etymology, as given by the Online Etymology Dictionary 
(http://www.etymonline.com/):

-------------------
turkey
     1541, "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), imported from Madagascar 
via Turkey, by Near East traders known as turkey merchants. The larger 
North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) was domesticated by the 
Aztecs, introduced to Spain by conquistadors (1523) and thence to wider 
Europe, by way of North Africa (then under Ottoman rule) and Turkey 
(Indian corn was originally turkey corn or turkey wheat in Eng. for the 
same reason). The word turkey was first applied to it in Eng. 1555 
because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea 
fowl. The Turkish name for it is hindi, lit. "Indian," probably via Fr. 
dinde "turkey hen," based on the common misconception that the New World 
was eastern Asia. The New World bird itself reputedly reached England by 
1524 (when Henry VIII is said to have dined on it at court). Turkeys 
raised by the Pilgrims were probably stock brought from England. By 
1575, turkey was becoming the usual main course at an English Christmas.
-------------------

But why would anything in the New World have been introduced to Europe 
by way of Spain -> North Africa???  By this time Spain had ousted the 
Moors (if my memory serves me correctly, this was complete in 1492). 
Spain and (the country of) Turkey were rivals for control of North 
Africa (the Barbary Coast) during the 1500s, so there was presumably 
contact (if not of the peaceful kind).  But why would the turkeys (the 
bird)--or corn, for that matter--have gotten to the rest of Europe by 
such a roundabout route?  It sounds like a(nother) confusion: the guinea 
fowl was no doubt introduced to Europe by the Turks, but the American 
Turkey simply looked like the guinea fowl, I would think...
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	Linguistic Data Consortium
	maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu


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