Turkey and turkey — How the bird got its name.Believe it or not as a historian I have been ask
Turkey and turkey — How the bird got its name.Believe it or not as a historian I have been asked a number of occasions why the Turkish people named their country after an American bird. While I truly believe that there are no such things as dumb questions, I have to laugh at such a ridiculous notion. So to start I will first make it clear that the nation of “Turkey” was not named after the Thanksgiving Bird.Rather the bird was named after the country. In the Middle Ages a band of nomadic people called the Turks emigrated from Central Asia and settled in the modern day nation of Turkey. In the 13th century AD Turkish merchants introduced a type of bird to Europe from Sub-Saharan Africa called the guinea fowl. The guinea fowl quickly became a popular delicacy food among Europeans, especially the English, who called the birds “turkey fowls” after the Turkish merchants who traded them. Eventually the name of the bird was shortened to “turkey”.In the 16th century English explorers were mapping the East Coast when they came in contact with a new type of American bird. The new American bird was similar to the “turkey” brought by Turkish merchants to England. It walked on the ground, flew clumsily, clucked and gobbled, and sported a red beard. Because of the remarkable resemblance of this new American bird to the “turkey”, English explorers called the birds “turkeys” as well. The name stuck and soon the guinea fowl brought by Turkish traders were forgotten while the name “turkey” became synonymous with the American bird. The rest is history. -- source link
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