Turkey? - Learn Stuff

I`m sure you`ve noticed that there`s a large North American bird called a turkey, and there`s also a country named Turkey. Is this a coincidence? Nope.

There seems to be two main theories on how the bird got its name in English. The first one, which is supposedly the most accepted, seems to be a bit convoluted to me.

Theory `A` figures that Spanish explorers came across the cousin of what I know as a `wild turkey` in Mexico. Today that cousin is known as an ocellated turkey, and the Spanish took it back across the ocean to sell it in ports near the modern country of Turkey - not Spain for some reason.

Yeah, hang in there. So these turkey cousins were being traded by Turkish merchants, and that`s how the English got to know about them, and referred to the birds as Turkeys.

The crazy part is that the English then took these turkey cousins back to the North America where they then came across the more northern wild turkeys - and called them the same because they look similar.

Wow. There has got to be a more simple explanation...

How about this: English explorers came across wild turkeys and thought they were related to what we now call guineafowl. Their heads kind of look the same. The English were familiar with these African birds because they were traded by Turkish merchants. Both birds were referred to as `turkeys` in English.

Either way, the bird we call a turkey today got its name from the English interaction with the Turkish merchants.

Of course, there have to be many Native American words for turkey as they can be found from Mexico to Canada. There are some theories that the English word `turkey` comes from a Native American word that is phonetically similar. That seems like a huge coincidence to me.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody, I won`t be having any turkey.