EAT MOR CHIKIN *burp*

Day 2,269, 21:26 • Published in South Africa South Africa • by Luc Praetor


Turkey

Early explorers in the Americas saw flocks of turkeys singing in the magnolia forests, for the turkey is native to [the Americas]. Indeed, it was domesticated and eaten by the Aztecs. Why it should therefore be named after a country in Asia Minor is a little odd, but explicable.

Many animals are misnamed. Guinea pigs, for example, aren't pigs and they aren't from Guinea. They are found in Guyana in South America, and it takes only a little mispronunciation to move them across the Atlantic. The pig bit is just weird.

The same is true of the helmeted guinea fowl, or Numidia meleagris, which was once native to Madagascar but not Guinea. The helmeted guinea fowl is an ugly bird. It has a big bony knob on the top of its head (hence the name), but it tastes delicious.

People started importing helmeted guinea fowl from Madagascar to Europe, and the people who did the importing were usually Turkish traders. They were known as Turkey merchants, and the birds that they brought were therefore called turkeys. But those aren't the turkeys that we eat at Christmas with bread sauce and relatives. That bird is Meleagris gallopavo, which is also delicious.

Editors note: "We" refers to British and US citizens. In eSouth Africa... you'd be hard pressed to find a family willing to buy a turkey, and cook it too. The effort. If you really want to buy a turkey, just buy another chicken. Like the good ol' takeaway shop [*gags*] said by having a bovine hold up a placard, "EAT MOR CHIKIN". The rest of the world does.



It was the Spanish conquistadors who found Meleagris gallopavo, in the magnolia forests and brought it back to Europe. It became popular in Spain and then in North Africa. And though it's a different species from the helmeted guinea fowl, the two birds do look surprisingly alike.

People got confused. The birds looked the same, tasted similar and both were exotic new dishes brought from Somewhere Foreign. So it was assumed that they were the same thing, and the American bird got called turkey as well, in the mistaken belief that it was a bird that was mistakenly believed to come from Turkey.

In Turkey itself, of course, they didn't make this mistake. They knew the bird wasn't theirs. So the Turks made a completely different mistake and called it a hindi, because they thought the bird was probably Indian. The French thought the same and they still call turkey dindon, or d'Inde, which also means from India. It's a most confusing bird but delicious.


Editors note: Though... I'm not sure I'd continue supporting Chick-fil-a. Not until the boss dies (or has a lobotomy) and modern civilization is actually running the place (Chick-fil-a publically stated they are against gay marriage). Why do we care who gays marry?

~ Another article consumed for eRepublik use

The Etymologicon - Mark Forsyth
A circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language