How Did the Turkey Get Its Name?
There are three possibilities for how the Turkey got its name (although they are not the only ones):
- When Christopher Columbus thought he landed in India, he believed the turkey was a peacock. He called it ‘tuka’ which is peacock in Tamil (Indian language).
- The Native American name for turkey is firkee, which could have been adopted by colonists.
- When a turkey is scared, it makes a "turk, turk" noise. This could be how the turkey got its name.
This seemingly harmless question popped into my head one morning as I realized that the holidays were once again upon us. After all, I thought, there’s nothing more American than a turkey. Their meat saved the pilgrims from starvation during their first winter in New England. Out of gratitude, if you can call it that, we eat them for Thanksgiving dinner, and again at Christmas, and gobble them up in sandwiches all year long. Every fourth grader can tell you that Benjamin Franklin was particularly fond of the wild turkey, and even campaigned to make it, and not the bald eagle, the national symbol. So how did such a creature end up taking its name from a medium sized country in the Middle East? Was it just a coincidence? I wondered. The next day I mentioned my musings to my landlord, whose wife is from Brazil. “That’s funny,” he said, “In Portuguese the word for turkey is ‘peru.’ Same bird, different country.” Hmm. With my curiosity piqued, I decided to go straight to the source. That ve
“Hey Let’s Talk Turkey” Recipe and Activity Book Here’s an action-packed activity book you’ll just “gobble” up. There are some easy turkey recipes for you to try make sure to ask an adult for help and lots of great games to play and pages to colour. To order a copy of this activity book, please contact us by email at mbturkey@turkey.mb.ca to give us your full postal mailing address (Manitoba residents only).
Turkeys have never been raised in Turkey. In fact. the turkey wasn’t known in Europe until it was discovered by early colonists in North America. But in a way, the turkey was named after the nation of Turkey! Here’s how it happened: When European settlers first saw the turkey in America, they thought it looked like another bird,
