\u201cWhy are turkeys called turkeys when they come from North America?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nGood question. There have been a number of guesses over the years as to how turkeys got their name. One story holds that turkeys sometimes make a \u201cturk turk turk turk\u201d noise, so their name is derived from that. Turkeys are better known, however, for the gobble sound produced by the males, so one would have expected that to inspire their name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nOthers have guessed that the word turkey is derived from the word \u201ctuki,\u201d which is Hebrew for peacock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe real story behind the name has to do with 16th-century trade. Turkeys weren\u2019t introduced to Europe in large numbers until the 16th century. Another popular bird being traded throughout Europe at the same time was the guinea fowl, which came from Madagascar through the Ottoman Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe Ottoman Empire, at the time, was a large realm that controlled parts of northern Africa, western Asia, and southern Europe. It first arose in Turkey and its capital was Constantinople (present-day Istanbul).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMerchants who traded with the Ottoman Empire were often called \u201cturkey merchants,\u201d and their goods were described in a similar fashion. Thus, the guinea fowl was often called a \u201cturkey fowl,\u201d and other goods from the Ottoman Empire were called \u201cturkey wheat,\u201d \u201cturkey corn,\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSpanish explorers and conquistadors were the first Europeans to find the North American turkey, and they brought it back to Spain. It then spread to other parts of Europe. Many Europeans thought the North American bird was a different type of guinea fowl, so they called it a \u201cturkey fowl,\u201d which was later shortened to just \u201cturkey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAmusingly, other countries have names for the turkey that come from similar misunderstandings. The Turks themselves, for example, call the turkey \u201chindi,\u201d which is also their name for India. The name probably comes from the old and mistaken belief that North America was part of Asia. When Christopher Columbus found some of the Caribbean islands, he\u2019d believed that he\u2019d found a new route to India and thus called the natives \u201cIndians.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSimilarly, the French call the turkey \u201cdinde,\u201d which is derived from \u201cd\u2019Inde,\u201d which means \u201cfrom India.\u201d Portuguese people call the turkey \u201cperu\u201d after the South American country of the same name. The Vietnamese call the turkey \u201cg\u00e0 t\u00e2y,\u201d which simply means \u201cwestern chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nOther names for the turkey reference its size rather than supposed country of origin, whether correct or otherwise. Speakers of Dari in Afghanistan call the turkey \u201cfel murgh,\u201d which means \u201celephant chicken.\u201d People in Myanmar call the turkey \u201ckyat sin,\u201d which also means \u201celephant chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhy are turkeys called turkeys when they come from North America?\u201d Good question. There have been a number of guesses over the years as to how turkeys got their name. One story holds that turkeys sometimes make a \u201cturk turk turk turk\u201d noise, so their name is derived from that. Turkeys are better known, however, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":3550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4011,"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548\/revisions\/4011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globe-tips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}