[Lexicog] Turkey

Thu Aug 25 16:27:52 UTC 2005

A quick look at  OED will confirm that Nick Miller's account of the origins
of the
English word "turkey" is, in essentials, correct.

The bird we now know as the guinea fowl was regularly imported to England
(and elsewhere in Europe) from Turkey during the 16th century. It was
regarded
as a fine delicacy at that time (along with goose, swan and crane) and it
was
known as "Turkey cock".  The earliest citation for "Turkey cock" in OED is
from 1541.  (The female was known as the "Turkey hen". Compare
"peacock"/"peahen.")

When explorers and settlers encountered the American bird, this word was
used, even though the American turkey is only very distantly related to the
guinea fowl.

In 1616, the explorer Captain Smith wrote a Description of New England
in which, commenting on the bird life there, he mentions "Teale, mews, guls,
turkies, and dive-doppers."  (I don't know what dive-doppers are.)

In 1634 the settler William Wood wrote, in "New England's Prospect":

     The Turkey is a very large bird, of a blacke colour, yet white in
flesh.

These early explorers and settlers were doing what they regularly did,
namely taking an existing English word and using it to denote some newly
discovered bit of fauna or flora in the New World, without worrying too
much about the finer scientific details.  Bear in mind that this all
happened
over 100 years before Linnaeus established a scientific nomenclature for
plants and animals.

This, incidentally, is why the American "robin" is completely unrelated to
the European "robin". Many other examples could be given.

Patrick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jimm GoodTracks" <goodtracks at gbronline.com>
To: <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Turkey

> I had not heard the story of the name "Turkey" being applied to the N.Am
> bird via Africa & the country of Turkey.  I would think that a name for
the
> N.Am bird would have been well established by the earliest N & S. Am.
> colonists before the birds were imported/ deported to other continents.
> Surely, they would not have shiped an unknown "specimens" or "species"
> without calling them something.  After all, look at the label Columbus
gave
> indigenous Native Americans as he came upon them and sent a captured
> shipment of them to Spain, i.e., "Indians", based on his false assumption
> that he landed in India.  (No need to get into the rest of his atrocities,
> the naming being the least one)
>
> The Turkey, the indigenous large bird of the N & S.Am that is
nonmigratory,
> but is considered for both a game (hunting) and poultry bird (domestically
> raised for eating).  The domestic bird is descended from the Mexican
turkey,
> taken to Europe by the conquistadores in the 16th century.  The wild
turkey
> is a woodlands bird, gregarious except at breeding time.  It is a good
> flyer.
>
> The Spanish for Turkey, the bird, is:  "guajalote" and "guanajo" in Cuba.
> Another term is "pavo".
> The Turkey-Cock that was mentioned above is "gallipavo".
> I mention this as many Spanish names of  New World animals & birds were
> taken directly from the local indigenous languages, and thus may be a clue
> to the English designation.
>
> For what it is worth, the N.Am central plains indigenous Ioway (Baxoje)
name
> for Turkey is "tagro'gro", which leads one to think it is taken directly
> from the sounds that the turkey make.  On the otherhand, their related
> neighbors, the Otoe-Missouria, simply called the bird:  "waying'xanje"
> meaning -- big bird --.  The Ioway, Otoe-Missoria are indigenous to the
> present regions of  the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas
> [presently, removed to NE Kansas and central Oklahoma].  They are a
Siouian
> Family language, most closely related to the Winnebago (Hochank) of
> Wisconsin  [presently, of Wisconsin and Nebraska].
>
> I have no idea what the the Eastern tribes of the present U.S. may have
> called the woodlands bird, which also may provide some clue as to the
> present name "Turkey".
> Jimm
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Nick Miller" <nick.miller at czech-translation.com>
> To: <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 4:12 AM
> Subject: [Lexicog] Turkey
>
>
> >
> > Hi,
> > Can anyone shed any light (or feathers) on the origin of "turkey", as in
> > the
> > bird:
> > I read that the Guinea Fowl was originally the so-called "turkey(-cock)"
> > because it was imported from Africa through the country Turkey. Later,
due
> > to confusion, the native American bird gained the name.
> > What confusion? It seems to be a rather "we don't actually know"
> > explanation.
> > Thanks,
> > Nick Miller
> >
> > ---
> > avast! Antivirus: Odchozi zprava cista.
> > Virova databaze (VPS): 0534-2, 24.08.2005
> > Testovano: 25.8.2005 11:12:35
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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