TURKEY : A COUNTRY AND A BIRD WITH THE SAME NAME?
Turkey, as the name of the country where Turkish
people (i.e. Turks) live, was derived from "Turk" or "Tourk" in old turkish
or Arabic or Persian; and from "Turcus" in medieval Latin for which the
plural form was "Turci". [1] The word experienced various adaptations like
"Tourkoi" in Byzantine-Greek or "T-u-kue" in Chinese. In Turkish, "Turk"
means strength and therefore, "Turkey" means "The Strong (people)."[2]
As the name of a bird, the word "turkey" was used
as early as the 16th century by the European people. The name was given
to the Guinea Fowl (numida meleagris) which was imported from the African
island of Madacascar through Turkey by means of traders who dealt with
the Near East.
The traders were known as "turkey merchants" and
hence, the bird that was sold by these merchants was known by the English
in particular as a "turkey" or "turkey cock". [3,6]
The turkey which is the essential dish of the Thanksgiving
Dinner in the American tradition is originally a North-American bird (meleagris
gallopavo), although it has been domesticated in most parts of the world
including Turkey. [4] Where as the Guinea fowl is a different bird than
the North American turkey, they are related in that, both belong to the
order of gallinaceous birds (birds which nest on the ground). [5]
As described above, before Columbus discovered America,
the British people knew the the turkey as the bird imported by the turkey
merchants.[6] When the first British colonists settled on the newly-discovered
lands of the American continent and found around their fortresses, a native
bird which bore a strong resemblance to the bird which they had known from
their homeland, they called it "turkey". The early colonists carried great
amounts of this North American bird back to England and introduced there
as turkey.
The first appearance of the word "turkey" in English
literature coincides with the time of this introduction, i.e. 1524. [7]
Within about 50 years of its introduction to Europe, turkey became associated
with the Christmas festivities (1575). [8]
Some sources indicate another path through which
the turkey was introduced to Europe. Since prehistoric times the Aztec
Indians had domesticated a gallinaceous bird. The Spanish invaders brought
it to Spain and introduced it to the king in about 1519. [9] From Spain
it spread all over Europe, reaching England in 1541. The bird which was
brought to Europe by the Spanish was the occelated turkey (agriocharis
occelata) found in Mexico, Guetemala and Brazil, and is very much like
its North American sibling. [10]
In any case, the American bird, - either North or
Central - was introduced to the European people who had known guinea fowl
as "turkey", the name that was given on account of its import path by the
turkey merchants. The introduction of the new bird, which was very similar
to the guinea fowl, resulted in its designation as "turkey".
References
[1] Partridge, Eric "Origins. A Short Etymological
Dictionary of the Modern English" 1963, p.743.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Klein Ernest "A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary
of the English Language" vol.2 p.1665.
[4] author's note : turkey is avery popular dish
in Turkey at the New Year's Eve
[5] Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.
[6] Barnhart R.K. ed. "The Barnhart Dictionary of
Etymology" 1988, p.1176.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Encyclopedia Brittanica 1989 ed. vol.22, p.398.
[10] Ibid. vol.27 p.274.
___________
by Ugur Baysal
Note : This article was published in Worcester
Polytechnic Institute Weekly Newspaper; Worcester Telegram Daily Newspaper;
and Springfield Union News Daily Newspaper in November 1990.
