Why is it called a 'turkey' if it's not from Turkey?

It turns out it *is* from Turkey! Sort of.

Love etymology and want more? Check out Jess Zafarris' great book, "Words from hell: Unearthing the darkest secrets of English etymology"

#turkey #Thanksgiving #history #etymology #linguistics #language #OttomanEmpire #Madagascar

[loerre]

Interesting! In Turkey we call turkey as Hindi, which is so similar to Hindistan (we call India as Hindistan) and i know its not coming from there, since "Hintli" means Indian. But maybe we call the turkey as "Hindi" due to a translation mistake: we call Indians (Native Americans) as Kızılderili (which literally means those who have red skin or with red skin) but when Spanish explorers find the America and thought it as India, we may also thought that they were Indian and since it was their bird, hence took the word as 'Hindi'. I think the best explanation would be this 🙈

[hexreyes]

the isleño people of New Mexico called them gallinas de la tierra, hens of the earth, bc they had no idea what they were haha

[anttwo]

If it came to us through Madagascar, then why the heck do we call it "hindi" XD

Yes hindi as in India-related. Slavs also call it an India-related name (like Polish "indyk")

[Dr.Westside]

Nobody cares . Ben Franklin explaining that the eagle is lazy and of low moral character and the turkey is not lazy and of high character is more fun .