What is the origin of the phrase cold turkey?
Let’s talk turkey. Since “cold turkey” is normally used in the context of quitting an unhealthy habit, such as smoking, we had a hunch its origins had something to do with addiction. Sure enough, a quick Yahoo! search on “cold turkey” + “origin” led us to an entry on IdiomSite. Here, we learned that the phrase describes the skin’s reaction to heroin withdrawal. As an addict stops using the drug, blood is drawn toward the internal organs, thereby leaving the skin to resemble a cold, plucked turkey. The popular Q&A site AllExperts dates the phrase back to 1910 and states that it originally meant “without preparation,” referring to the ease of making a dish of cold turkey. In 1922, the expression acquired its darker connotation related to drug withdrawal. Actually, our feathered
