What came first: The Turkey or Turkey?

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | 3 Comments

What came first, The Turkey or Turkey?

I recently watched the PBS documentary “Hidden Turkey”, and learned that there is actually a connection between the country Turkey, and the bird that we call by the same name.

As the story goes, The French word for Turkey is “dinde“ which means “From India.”

Turks also believed that Turkeys came from India, and thus named the bird “Hindi” (Hindistan is Turkish for = India)

The English believed that Turkeys must have come from Turkey, because they arrived on ships that had been trading with Turkey

All of them were wrong however as Turkeys were first domesticated in Mexico and brought to Europe in the 16th century.

Although Turkey isn’t all that popular of a meat these days in Turkey, they are still raised and eaten throughout modern Turkey, apparently however have a lively history in this land.

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  • Karatas_hakan

    The turkey is developed in 19th century to humuliate turks..At that time and before the word “turk” used to mean “forte” power or strength and braveness…both french and british history writers tried to manipulate this meaning..so far they have achieved it in USA…

    • Jakedolson

       Interesting perspective Hakan.  do you think Turkey’s use of the word “Hindi” for the big bird because of the presumed connection to India is humiliating to Indians?

      I do think the word Turk is becoming associated again with power, strength and bravery as Turkey becomes more influential on the international stage.

  • Agorculture

    It is interesting how foods spread and obtain their common names. I heard that Turkeys got their name from Guinea Fowl as Guineas used to be called Turkey Fowl since many of them were imported from or somehow associated with the country of Turkey. When America was discovered, the explorers saw this bird that resembled what they had been calling Turkey Fowl and the name stuck. Similar to how Native Americans were known as Indians. I raise Guineas and frequently see wild Turkeys roaming around. They do resemble each other from a distance.