Turkey
is a traditional dinner today for many Americans. It is a carry over from the
pilgrims and their original feast of Thanksgiving when the native bird was
plentiful in the wild.
So why
do we call it Turkey? There is a reason and as happens so many times, the
all-American bird got its name somewhat by mistake.
The tale
begins with the British Empire which had stretched itself into Africa during
the sixteen hundreds. Along with diamonds the British exported a wild eatable
bird back to England, but in order to get the shipment to the British Isles the
cargo was routed through Turkey and supposedly that's how the big bird got its
name.
When the
sharp-eyed settlers spotted a similar winged bird strutting through the
American colonies, they called it...Turkey.
Scientists
who study these sorts of things tell us the bird that lives in Africa that was
imported to Europe by way of Turkey, is not the same bird that is native to
America.
Actually
we probably ought to call our bird " Meleagris". That’s what the
turkey is known as in scientific jargon, and that comes from the Greek. In
fact, one of the earliest mentions of the Meleagris comes from Aristotle. Just
think if the bird had first been exported from his country we could be sitting
down to a Greece dinner with all the trimmings.
Happy
Thanksgiving!
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