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Which came first—the bird or the country?

DMak
@DMak
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We call them dindons, or, for those less inclined toward French, moan baarang (French chickens), because French colonialists introduced them to Cambodia in the late 19th century. The French call the birds coqs d’inde, meaning roosters of India. But what about India? Indians refer to them as "Peru," and the Portuguese do the same. Then there are the Turks, who refer to these North American birds as "Hindi."

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name "turkey" is a shortened version of "turkey cock" and "turkey hen," which originally referred to African guinea fowls. These African birds were first brought to Europe via Turkey, thus the name. When the settlers arrived in the New World, they discovered similar-looking birds and dubbed them turkey cocks/hens, which were later shortened to turkeys.

Turkey in different languages:

Frank Schulenburg

Greek: Gallopoula (French bird), though according to some sources, it is called Egyptian rooster.

Egyptian Arabic: Greek rooster, but according to some sources, it’s called Roman rooster.

Arabic: Roman rooster

Turkmen: Hindi towugy

Catalan: Gall dindi

Russian: Indiuk

Dutch: Kalkoen, referring to the city of Calicut

Finnish: Kalakuna

Danish: Kalkun

Swedish: Kalkon

Spanish: Pavo

Italian: Tacchino

Slovenian: Puran

Farsi: Boqalamun

Hungarian: Pulyka

Mandarin: Huǒjī

Japanese: Shichimenchō

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

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Discussion (12)

  • Randy Weivoda@RandyWeivoda

    To answer the question in the title: Of course, the bird existed before the nation of Turkey. It just wasn't called a turkey. I have no idea what the various American Indian tribes called the bird.

    DMak (View Post):

    According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name “turkey” is a shortened version of “turkey cock” and “turkey hen,” which originally referred to African guinea fowls. These African birds were first brought to Europe via Turkey, thus the name. When the settlers arrived in the New World, they discovered similar-looking birds and dubbed them turkey cocks/hens, which were later shortened to turkeys.

    Here's where things get weird. The bird got its name because of the country of Turkey. But the country doesn't like the association with the bird, so is presently insisting that when written in the Roman alphabet, it must be spelled Türkiye.

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