[Lexicog] Turkey

[rwd0002 at unt.edu]

Quoting helpdesk <bi1 at soas.ac.uk>:

> Incidentally in Arabic it is called Diik Ruumi Œa Roman (i.e. christian,
> european) chicken¹.  No one seems to want to be responsible for such a
> strange looking bird I think
> Bruce
> 
> 
> On 25/8/05 7:50 pm, "David Kaufman" <dvklinguist2003 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > I always found it fascinating that the words for "turkey" are usually
> quite
> > different across Europe and even among the Latin languages themselves,
> e.g.,
> > Spanish (Cast.) pavo, Italian tacchino, French dinde or dindon,
> Portuguese
> > peru'.  Different Spanish-speaking countries also borrowed indigenous
> words
> > that they use in preference to the conquistador's Castilian word, as Jimm
> > pointed out, such as guajolote in Mexico.
> >  
Let me put in my Dutch 2 cents: in Dutch the word is kalkoen [kalkun], 
shortened from Kalkoense haan, which is from Kalekoetse haan, 
literally 'rooster of Calcutta (or maybe Calicut, another place in India). So 
the Dutch, like the French, thought it was originally a bird from India.

Willem