Why is a turkey called a turkey?

Why is a bird from North America called a turkey? And what is it called in Turkey?
These questions and more are answered in 5 minutes of solid turkey trivia.
Dinde, kalkoen, Dutch chicken, French chicken, habash... Find out what confusing names turkey has been given around the world (clue: it's not called a North America anywhere...).
Some of the info for this video comes from The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth. Always a fun read: / the-etymologicon
==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
0:23 Where the confusion began
1:13 Why turkey became turkey
2:27 What's it called in Turkey?
3:11 Turkey in other languages
4:24 What should we call it?
4:40 Goodbye!

[@maxximumb]

The Nahuatl word for turkey, wueh-xōlō-tl, is pronounced by Mexicans; guajolote /ɡwaxoˈlote/, [ɡwaxoˈlot̪e] translated it means big monster.

[@RobWords]

Oh! I saw guajolote and failed to notice it was a cognate. The second, more complicated example actually just means "big bird" in Blackfoot.

[@Mike8827]

So it’s the big brother of an Axolotl ?

[@cherylcogan3542]

@@RobWords So then turkey is the original big bird from Sesame Street?

[@Mozkonauta]

I live in Mexico. Yes, we call it guajolote but also “pavo”. In fact, when I buy it at the supermarket it is called “pavo”, which comes, I think, from the latin “pavus”. Usually, guajolote is the living animal, and its meat is pavo. But only in Mexico. I do not know about other hispanic countries.

[@jesusdavis2941]

@@Mozkonauta in the Caribbean we call it pavo either it's alive or in the oven. Now that I think of it, Not the case for the cerdo or puerco, except if it's cooking on a stick that's lechón

[@BBQhenry]

The Vietnamese word for turkey is"gà tây", where "gà" means chicken and "tây" West/Western, making the word literrally mean "Western chicken"

[@hoppinggnomethe4154]

correct

[@abramring2801]

Most accurate I've heard yet.. hehe..

[@kienvu4690]

It's not in the East so it's definitely come from the West, easy game 😄

[@axolotl1973]

Works fine until you present the western chicken to the vietnamese and said you brought it from Turkey.

[@ncooty]

The Burmese term translates as "elephant chicken", which surely has to be in anyone's top 3.

[@SatumainenOlento]

Yes! Top 3. I still like Chinese name Fire Chicken the best!

[@SlimThrull]

@@SatumainenOlento Fire Chicken? I can get behind that.

[@Polavianus]

Same in my language (Well its related to Burmese)

[@daerdevvyl4314]

I’ve heard people jokingly call the Firebird car a Firechicken.

[@greghight954]

@@daerdevvyl4314 or Thunder Chicken

[@makic3291]

In Japanese, it's 七面鳥　or 7 faced bird because the colour of its face charges according to its mood. 7 just refers as "many".

[@OlgasBritishFells]

Interesting

[@sundog486]

七 (shichi, “seven”) +‎ 面 (men, “face”) +‎ 鳥 (chō, “bird”).

[@amandasmith593]

I was wondering where the 7 faced thing came from!

[@makic3291]

@@amandasmith593 in the Meiji period when Japan was going through modernisation/westernisation, Zoos were built and a lot of new species were introduced. That's when the names for those animals were decided by academics.

[@hiswieder9398]

@@Taricus noodle is 麵

[@internetexplorer68]

In Arabic as far as I know, there are 2 different birds with 2 different names: The Guinea fowl called: "Habashi" which literally translates to: From Ethiopia, these tho aren't so popular anymore in the Arabic world The today's north American turkey called: "Deek Romi" Which translates to "The Roman Rooster". "Romi" can refer to anything European or western, not to Rome/ Italy in specific.

[@Xyronyte]

glad you brought this up! Do you know if the Rome they are referring to is Italy or the Byzantines (ie Turkey)?

[@mimzim7141]

Roumi may ( probably does) refer to roum as for anatolia now in turkey rather than rome. Like in sultanat roum

[@oakkahsapsanathobi9756]

@@Xyronyte That is probably because of Greeks of Anatolia/Asia Minor introduced themselves as Romans. Byzantine Empire is probably made up by historians. I'm not an expert of Medieval Ages. In Turkish we have two words to identify Greeks. One is "Rum" (Roman), other is Yunan (Ionian). We don't have derivatives of Greek or Hellen. As you may know, the emperors in Byzantium/Constantinople regarded themselves as Roman emperors.

[@davidwuhrer6704]

@@oakkahsapsanathobi9756 The Byzantine empire was also known as East Rome. The cultural centre of the Roman empire shifted around a lot, and in the early fourth century (common era) there was an East Rome (Byzantium) and a West Rome (the original Rome, the eternal city), each with its own heads of state. With the sacking of Rome by Odoaker later that century, only East Rome remained, but the Roman empire as a whole quickly became history from that point on. (Chinese historians relate how the once big city of a million of Rome became a town of twenty thousand full of churches, and how Byzantium was the proper successor of the Roman empire.) When Constantinople (it was renamed to that for some reason) was conquered by the Ottoman empire in the 15th century, Moscow declared itself the proper successor of Rome and of the Orthodox Christian church of Constantinople (Nestorianism), on account of royal family ties, despite Constantinople (now Istanbul) being home to more Christians than all of Russia at the time. (And Nestorianism spread to China.) But the Russian Orthodox church became part of the Russian government for some reason. The Ottomans declared themselves the proper successors of the Roman empire, of course, but nobody really cared. In addition there was also the Holy Roman Empire, founded in the 8th century, which had no lineage with either Roman empire, but it lent legitimacy to the aristocracy and gave the pope of Rome (proper Rome, in Italy) a lot of political influence - enough to break ties with Orthodox Christianity. History is full of silly things.

[@Alhazmi75]

Agree we call it roumi roaster in reference to Roum or byzantine in anatolia

[@MrPhillyval]

Interesting ! In France, we call it "dinde" because the conquistadors initially thought they arrived in India (and not America). When the came back in Europe with this animal, they called it the "chicken from India" ("la poule d'Inde" in french). Then le "poule" disapeared and the "d'Inde" ended in a single contracted word : "dinde"...

[@catherinewilson1079]

I vote for your history!

[@kuroimae-ashihorbuch-kanal6537]

@MrPhillyval And is there a difference between dinde and dindon ?

[@MrPhillyval]

@@kuroimae-ashihorbuch-kanal6537 Yes : balls. 🙂I mean The dindon is the male, the dindonneau is their baby.

[@Pavel_M_Mihalik]

In Czech we call it ''krocan''. The etymology of the word is a bit unknown, but it's assumed that it comes from the german word ''Truthahn'', which later morphed into ''krutan'' which became the now used ''krocan''. Fun fact, though: old Czech used to have its own words for it: ''morák'' (male) and ''morka'' (female). The words were based on the word ''moře'' (sea) - thus highlighting its place of origin.

[@leventevarga]

Pulyka!!

[@vozdelibrepensante]

The name in Spanish is unrelated to any country, but the origin is curious. Turkey (animal) in Spanish is "pavo", which came directly from Latin. The curious thing is "pavo" in Latin meant peacock and when this word passed to Spanish, the meaning shifted to turkey and peacock was then renamed "pavo real" in Spanish (literally "royal turkey")

I'd love to know the thinking process behind the change. Like, who saw a turkey first and thought "yeah, these two look alike, let's name them together".

[@avivastudios2311]

@ The tail feathers, dude. 😁

[@gdsg77]

Fun fact, in Uruguay, we also use "pavo" as a derogatory term for people, meaning "foolish / fool / silly", as in "no seas pavo" = "don't act like a fool"

[@david13579naranja]

I know "real" in this context means "royal" but I prefer to see it as "real" (i .e. true/actual/correct). Un pavo real; un pavo de verdad.

[@MissingRaptor]

I was wondering about this. Thank you 😊

[@hosseinebrahimi3451]

Iranians call it "booghálámoon" "بوقلمون" this word former used to refer to a forgotten clothing material that was made from vegan wool fabric and would change color under sunlight specially made for royalty. basically Iranians call it a bird with many colors. and it's a slang for people who change their behavior and ideas so frequently and easily whenever it has benefit for them.

[@legion1791]

So cool!

[@susansparke3462]

Very interesting. That textile that you described sounds like it would be both beautiful fascinating. Thank you for sharing!

[@merrygrammarian1591]

If you hadn't explained the meaning, I absolutely would have guessed it was an onomatopoeia.

[@zkateyguy]

@@merrygrammarian1591 YES! It totally read it like the sound they make 🤣

[@avivastudios2311]

That is... complex. Languages are so facinating.

[@anthonywhelan5419]

A silly poem from my youth in 1960s. "Austria got Hungary, got a bit of Turkey and dipped it in Greece. Long legged Italy kicked poor Sicily into the Mediterranean Sea".

[@ShizuruNakatsu]

I didn't know these things existed but I made up my own one years ago, and I tried to add more countries onto it as time went on. I'm probably leaving some of it out but it was basically like: "Oman, I was Hungary so Iran to the kitchen and I was Russian to Czech the fridge. I found some Turkey but there was too much Greece when I fried it in Japan. Then I served it on some China and ate it before it got too Chile". I'm definitely leaving some parts out because there was something I added "to Sweden it" but I can't remember what it was. I never wrote it down.

[@ShizuruNakatsu]

In fact. I'm definitely missing even more than that because I also incorporated some cities as well as countries (and don't remember which ones), and Canada was in there too because it sounds like Can o' da (can of the).

[@StanSuchy]

We call it 'Indyk' In Polish, which until your video I never actually realised the India reference in the name. Thanks for making things clear😁

[@parker8120]

Russia calls indyk too. we in turkmenstan also call it hindi towuk means indian chicken

[@masterchinese28]

Similarly, I only realized that dinde in French meant d'Inde when I watched this video.

[@anaritabarrettosantiago5225]

In Portuguese, the word for turkey is peru, which is also the name of a country. I’ve always wondered why that bird had the name of a country in two different languages.

[@bjornopitz6561]

Two different countries, nonetheless :-)

[@SimonASNG]

We had this conversation organically in my very multi-ethnic office and ended up with a few of those links. English called it turkey, the Turks in our office said they called it Hindi, and the Hindus in our office punted back to Turkey. But that was as far as our cultural exchange got ;) Thanks for filling in the rest. Or at least taking it further.

[@user-xb5eo2bm1n]

Well Indians or Hindi-speakers aren't usually called Hindus because that's what followers of Hinduism are called. Of course the two things overlap more often than not but I thought I should make it clear. That being said India, Hindi and Hindu all do share the same etymology. As for the word "turkey" for the bird we Indians just borrowed it from English. This is just a funny speculation but I think we got to know of it from the Turks but refused to call it Hindi because it was definitely never native to India and then when the British came we willingly took their own word for the bird to get back at the Turks for calling it Hindi XD

[@ariffsuhut]

In Malaysia we call it "Ayam Belanda", literal translation is Dutch Chiken. Glad to see not just us who are confused as to where this bird originated. 😁

[@2degucitas]

Yes, Dutch whose ships brought them to your shores

[@eddymison3527]

The newer generation mostly know the name "turkey" too, due to media influence. But traditionally, yes, it's called Dutch's chicken.

[@bismanaufa5618]

In Indonesia it's straight called the Dutch's name 'Kalkun'

[@ikkue]

In Thai, as we were never colonized, we made up a word for it; "ไก่งวง (Kài Ngūang)", which literally means "Snood/Wattle Chicken" because of the dangling bit under its beak.

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

I love that etymology! I believe I'll have a snood chicken sandwich for lunch!

[@DMartinov]

In Poland we call this bird ‘indyk’ as if it was from India! Fun fact we also call indie video games ‘indyki’ (turkeys)

[@SlimThrull]

@@DMartinov Hm. I'm curious, is there a negative connotation to referring to something else as a "Turkey"? In English there certainly is.

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

@@SlimThrull i only would remember "cold turkey" for the method to abstain from drug abuse and suffer through the symptoms of withdrawal.

[@vboyz21]

* colonised 🫣

[@DJKLProductions]

In German, we call the species "Truthuhn", although typically we refer to it as "Truthahn". "Truthuhn" means turkey henn (or in general, the species) and "Truthahn" turkey cock. If we want to specifically refer to the domestic turkey, we call it "Pute". The name "Truthuhn/-hahn" comes either from the onomatopoeia of the calling of turkeys, or from Middle Low German "droten", which is related to Old Norse "þrutna", "to swell", and Old English "þrutian", "to swell with anger and pride". The latter meaning goes back to the typical threatening gestures of turkeys and is related to the modern English word "to threaten". It has not been conclusively clarified which of the two possibilities of the origin of the designation is the actual one. It may even be both, which in symbiosis has ensured that in German we call turkeys what we call them. Where there is relative clarity is with the term "Pute" for domesticated turkeys. Here, linguists are quite unanimous that it comes from the call of the animals and is thus an onomatopoeia. It's actually nice that we Germans don't associate turkeys with a country or region, at least not by name. I have always perceived them as originating in North America. Whether the general public in Germany does too, I can't say.

[@LE-ml1oc]

I always knew they where from america because I read asterix as a child.

[@iwersonsch5131]

Chicken that goes Trut. I like this pragmatism of not bringing up where it's from, especially seeing how everyone who tried has gotten it wrong

[@sMASHsound]

cool!

[@DJKLProductions]

@@LE-ml1oc That might be by case as well because I read those comics like a maniac when I was a child.

[@Ge1Ri4]

Interesting in that the German "Pute" is pronounced similar to the Spanish "puta", which is slang for "prostituta"/prostitute.

[@yehoshuacirt8645]

In Hebrew it's called תרנגול הודו. Tarnegol hodu. Hodu has two meanings: to thank (like in Thanksgiving holiday of America), and also it means the Indian continent. Coincidentally and strangely the term hits both bases. Wonderful channel.

[@MrZajebali]

That land piece is actually geologically termed "subcontinent". Did you know that in a million years they all gonna go underground? Asia gradually "bears" it down tectonically.

[@lizj5740]

@@MrZajebali Perhaps just a bit longer than a million years. In that period of time, moving northeast at approximately 5 cm or 2 inches per year, India will have moved 31.5 miles.

[@MrZajebali]

@@lizj5740, perhaps.

[@kristoferprepelica6749]

I live near the town of Callicoon, New York (USA). Callicoon got its name from Dutch hunters who settled the location in the 17th century. Because of the population of wild turkeys in the area, they named the community Kollikoonkill which translates into Wild Turkey Creek (turkey in Dutch = kalkoen). It is also proposed that the name comes from the native Choctaw people. Their word for turkey is cholokloha.

[@shad6644]

Interesting origin. What nesting, is that pronounced cholo-kloha or cholok-loha (or something else?)

[@citlalicervantes6498]

Thank sounds like you gonna kill a lot of turkeys 😆

[@eddylloyd7413]

In Afrikaans noem ons dit ook ‘kalkoen’.

[@oscarliu4418]

In Chinese, they are called 火雞/火鸡, literally Fire Chicken. I suppose from the colours of the feathers. Pronunciation of this word would vary pretty wildly between dialects, [ huǒ jī ] in Mandarin, [ fo gai ] in Cantonese, etc

[@SatumainenOlento]

I would LOVE if english speakers would start calling it Fire Chicken!!!! That would be UTTERLY AWESOME!!!!

[@ciprianpopa1503]

@@SatumainenOlento you literally have to set it on fire to make it a right reference.

[@the_morf]

It'll be funny if you could order turkey in Five Guys restaurant. Thats a joke for cantonese speakers.

[@Taricus]

@@the_morf The burger place?

[@masterimbecile]

Huh I always assumed it’s because of the red dangling bits on their head. But then again we don’t call roosters “fire chickens” either.

[@Bethos1247-Arne]

I understood the dry pun but still was happy that Rob explained it.

[@HWKier]

I love the word that my spouse (from Mexico) uses, "guajolote". Guajolote is a beautiful word of four easy-to-pronounce syllables. Guajolote is also a homophone of the turkey's gobble. Guajolote is a nobler and more authentic name for this noble bird.

[@angelcosta4383]

In Spain we call them pavo or gallipavo (not to be confused with peacocks (pavo real)

[@SatumainenOlento]

Yes, I like the sound of that.

[@guy-sl3kr]

What do you mean it's a homophone? I'm also Mexican and the word for gobble is glugluteo because the sound that turkeys make is "gluglugluglu".

[@Ithirahad]

It stops being noble and when filtered through English, sadly. Gwa-hou-low-t!eiy... yuck.

[@jeanbonnefoy1377]

3:37 the original French name in the 16th century was "poule d'Inde" (i.e. Indian hen). As for the guinea fowl, the French for it is "pintade" taken from the Portuguese "pintada" i.e. "painted bird" because of its livery. Interestingly enough, in the Middle-Ages, they were called "poules d'Inde" too, before the later introduced turkey stole their original name.

[@jenniferrue7929]

Italy’s most common word for turkey, tacchino, is an onomatopoeia. They also had the name gallina d’India (Indian hen) which became dindo and dindu in different regions of Italy.

[@Fabio-um2ud]

It's quite interesting that, as mentioned in the video, in the Portuguese language that bird is called "peru" - which, in turn, is the name of a South American country... So, in the English language there's this ackward situation in which the word "turkey" is used to denominate a bird and a country in the Near East - the very same way the word "peru" in Portuguese denominates the referred South American country.

[@slycordinator]

In Korean, Turkeys are called 칠면조 (Korean pronunciation of七面鳥). 칠(七) is seven. 면(面) is face/side/aspect. 조(鳥) is a bird. On a Korean site, I saw it explained that this refers there being seven different colors on their face/head. The same Chinese characters are used for the bird in Japan, but with a slightly different pronunciation. [ edit: In fact, the word was created in Japan and entered into Korean from Japanese.] My Korean students have always been shocked when I tell them that back in America, a "normal size" turkey that we'd get at the grocery would be around 12 kilos. lol edit: Tangent, but one time my Korean coteacher asked me what we called the thing you hit in badminton, since I was teaching an English lesson related to sports. Me: In the US, we usually call it a birdie. Her: In Korean, we call it shuttlecock. Isn't that English? Me: Yeah. It's right, but our teachers had us not call it that because...

[@2ndHandBurrito]

As someone who grew up with wild turkeys roaming the neighborhood, the idea of stopping a turkey to try and count the number of colors on its face without risking it being the last thing your eyes would see prior to their being scratched out of your face by those actually terrifying birds, never actually occurred to me.

[@davidjacobs8558]

Korean name for Turkey was introduced by the Japanese, who decided to name the bird "Seven Faced bird". However, I don't think Chinese use the same name. They rather call it "Fire Chicken". Taiwanese may call them "Seven Faced Birds", since they were under Japanese rule, but I'm not too sure about that.

[@slycordinator]

@@davidjacobs8558 You're right. Thanks for the correction. I edited the post to correct that.

[@BlinkyLass]

@@davidjacobs8558 It's fire chicken in Taiwan too.

[@VoodooAngel63]

@@2ndHandBurrito Wild turkies are definitely not known for their kindly disposition. A wild turkey hen once ran up and attacked the tire of my car as I was driving down my street!

[@gubjorggisladottir3525]

In Iceland we call this bird (that is called Turkey in English) Kalkúnn... that is a referee to Indland (India) as we got the name from Denmark and the bird was thought to come from India. (Kalkutta)

[@SurfinScientist]

In Dutch we call it Kalkoen, which is very similar.

[@alanaanneliechty6364]

Rob, your sense of humor is sublime. 💃🏼

[@kaasmeester5903]

This is why I love language... this silly bird turns out to be a veritable treasure trove of etymological gems.

[@alexanderalexandrin2362]

In Russia we call it Indeika and I’ve never have a thought about India :). Now I see hmm… Thks a lot your channel is amazing! I studied at school with extensive English learning (1986-1996) and still have the interest to English language as a wonderful hobby. But I missed one detail during the last 25 years: when and why did “I shall” construction become obsolete?

[@nibs7252]

Она так называется по тому что она *от индейцев*, не *из Индии*. Но вы это уже наверняка знаете.

[@levankhurtsidze5202]

Shall все еще попюлярно в британском английском, но ее давно заменили на will в американском аналоге.

[@ferretyluv]

It’s not obsolete in the UK. It’s just considered very formal in America.

[@parker8120]

Indyk in there is it for India or Indian tribe in US?

[@edmann1820]

Very common in the UK. In my southeast accent I wouldn't pronounce it clearly with an a sound. It would come out as shull or sh'll. "Sh'll we go to lunch" could sound like "should we go to lunch" but it's definetly shall.

[@YT-mb5od]

I was just binge watching your videos for a bit and when I looked down, I expected to see something like 100,000 subscribers, can't believe you're just at 900-1000! Keep it up with these well made and informative videos, I subscribed

[@thanhtruong946]

It also happened to me. Coudn't believe this man doesn't have many people to watch and subscribe.

[@nomennescio7571]

He's at 32k now, which I still find baffling given how great his videos are!

[@JulieWallis1963]

@@nomennescio7571 72k now, that’s a good improvement in less than two weeks.

[@BlinkyLass]

@@JulieWallis1963 103k now three weeks later.

[@jaytomioka3137]

The Japanese use two words for “Turkey”. One of course is an English loan word pronounced: “Tah-key”. The other is anarchistic: “Shichi-men-chou” and translates as the seven faced bird, because the wrinkles on the face and waddle create the illusion of many other faces. The loan word is mostly used today

[@kathleenking47]

Ice cream is also an English loan word ..in katakana

[@shad6644]

The geographical nature of the origin reminds me of Germany, Deutschland, Allemange, Niemcy, Tedesco… Great video. Always wondered about that ugly bird we love so much.

[@andrewp1075]

You're a funny man....I actually laughed out loud at your delivery of the list of names you get called on TikTok. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Bravo sir, bravo.

[@andeeanko7079]

Yes, and he really does look like he could be related to 'the Mum from Friday night dinner'!

[@simonmartineferland9419]

"I'll try not to be too dry." 🤦‍♂️🤣

[@hankkingsley9300]

Try the veal here all night Etc

[@vannhantran547]

1:06 "which definitely isn't hilarious". This part is highly hilarious 🤣 the timing was perfect

[@peterfenwick2540]

I live in Cape Town, South Africa and we have lots of guinea fowl running through our gardens. I have often wondered how they have taught the cats to pay no attention. Very interesting video!

[@2degucitas]

How can they ignore the repetitive squeaky gate noise??

[@origamiandcats6873]

I always want to live in South Africa but I'm scared because it's so violent. But now that I know there are guinea fowl running through everyone's yard I don't think I can resist

[@CoolGuy-th7bl]

They're a bit too big for cats to bother with.

[@Fridrik-]

Both Icelandic and Danish refer to the bird as "from Kolkata (India)"

[@dams0001]

Unbelievable! In Kolkata - as in the rest of India - we've never had a native word for the bird. And I doubt it ever graced a table before Raj functionaries started to import it afresh, though I wonder where from!

[@eternalfizzer]

Absolutely hilarious! And I think you need an episode of learning to pronounce it's native names (and no, not "Indian" names, because great geographers early sailors were not :-)

[@joelvanderkelen804]

This video is one of the funniest you ever made. Many thanks. The remark "Peru" being a "Turkey" in Portugal is just brilliant. No, that's not absurd, that's not nonsense. Not at all. It's far beyond. We're talking about Russia being Lesotho, Lesotho being Canada, Canada being Belgium, Belgium being Kazakhstan & Kazakhstan being the Holy See. Frrtch. But... I think I remember that Captain Jack Sparrow incurred some problems with the British version of the "Compagnie des Indes occidentales", the West Indies. A foggy matter about some bout of piracy in the Caribbeans, they say. So the New World was called "Indies". Or "Indes" in French. Later, French possessions in North Ameriga / America / Vespucciana (?) would be known as Louisiana. The fourteenth Louis liked to be praised. The then-unknown bird that will be called "Turkey" in English, became, quite naturally, the "hen from the Indies", or "la poule d'Inde". Therefore "dinde", "dindon", "dindonneau" ; an other mammal was named "cochon d'Inde" (which is a Guinea pig, comprenne qui pourra ; why Guinea ?). In classical French, "Inde" is the word used when referring to the Americas. So the whole thing hasn't anything to do with Bharat. I think.

[@Shahrdad]

In German, they call it Truthahn, which I think is derived from the noise they make, which in German is trut-trut versus the American gobble gobble. In Persian, it's called a Booghalamoon, which is thought to derive from the name of a fabric that showed different colors depending on which way it was turned, which was like the head and neck of the bird changing colors when it is upset.

[@melwugon3687]

Just saw the tom scott interview in my recommends. I came here and subbed. Great content!

[@RobWords]

Wonderful, thank you! 👍 It only took 10 years for that interview to pay off.

[@g3rn0m4ly7]

@@RobWords It does! It seems like its popping up a lot in the recommendations. At least I am coming from that vid too.

[@JootjeJ]

As you pointed out in Dutch it is called "Kalkoen", which is pronounced kɑlˈkun. Apparently that comes from the original "Calicut-hoen" or Calicut hen. I love how you teach me things I didn't know, but then also encourage me to find out more.

[@Ragnemalm]

Same word in swedish, "kalkon". So, hen from Kalikut, that means from some place in India.

[@rolandastaurage]

@@Ragnemalm in Lithuanian it is called "kalakutas"

[@lolliescheepers6949]

Same in Afrikaans Kalkoen.

[@JootjeJ]

@@lolliescheepers6949 it would be I guess 😉

[@kaasmeester5903]

@@Ragnemalm Calicut was an important Indian port, well known in Europe because of the spice trade. Today it's called Kozhikode

[@qwe5qwe566]

In Czech it is "krocan" for male and "krůta" for female. It either mimics the sound of the animal (onomatopoeia) or is taken from older German language (Kollerhahn).

[@sandman0123]

Most entertaining! 😄 In Hungarian, turkey is "pulyka" where the "u" sounds like a short version of the English "oo" and "ly" is just like the "y" sound in yacht. Not sure where the name came from but somebody in the comments mentioned the Bulgarian word for turkey (the bird) and it sounded very similar. The helmeted guineafowl (yes, delicious) is called gyöngyös, meaning something like "pearly", as a reference to the many small white dots on their feathers. The alternative name is gyöngytyúk, which is "pearl hen". Incidentally, tyúk sounds vaguely like chook! 😀

[@xlnt2new]

confirm that the Bulgarian word is Пуйка (Puyka) - i have no reference to a Bulgarian word with that root, maybe the sound the animal makes but it could be a bad pronunciation of Pute or even Purica :D Note that we also use at least 2 other words for this animal: Мисирка and Фитка (Misirka - probably because of the food used to grow it - corn)

[@ViktorBengtsson]

I thought I had never heard of guineafowl until I saw your mention of "pearl hen". That is the meaning of the name in Swedish as well (pärlhöna). And the name for the bird Turkey is apparently just borrowed from Dutch.

[@aleksandarmiloeski7637]

The South Balkan мисирка (misirka) is from Ottoman Turkish mısır, from the Arabic word for Egypt. So it's pretty much the same thing.

[@B2BWide]

Confirmed by another Hungarian here! It is interesting that "pulyka" is a diminutive form of "puly" that has no known meaning :D So this is most probably false conclusion. :D OTOH "pulyka" is a kind of onomatopoeic word. Hungarian turkeys make really strange voices (as all other turkeys I guess) that are really hard to phonetize along with many other animal voices. We have a kind of almost-failure here :)

[@B2BWide]

@ndarmiloeski7637 just for the records, Arabic "misr" or "musr" comes from Ancient Egyptian 'msr' that means the area of Lower and Upper Egypt (as Egyptians considered them two separate realms unified only by the person of the King of Two Lands (that in Egyptian is more like King of Two Countries or Realms, 'nb t3.wy' [neb taui].)

[@angelcosta4383]

In Spain Spanish we call guinea fowl "gallina guineana", the peacock "pavo real" (literally means royal fowl and comes from the Indian subcontinent) and the turkey is simply "pavo" or sometimes "gallipavo" (chicken-fowl).

[@bobbyboygaming2157]

Tu sabes como le dicen en Espana a una "yeast infection"? En Google dice infecction por levaduras pero se me hace que ha de estar incorrecto. y yo recuerdo haber sabido otra palabra para referir a eso pero se me olvido y google le dice levaduras. Pienso que es incorrecto proque levadura es solamente una subespecie usada para fermentar comidas y no es "infecciosa".

[@angelcosta4383]

@@bobbyboygaming2157 yeast es definitivamente levadura. Yo diría infección fúngica

[@B2BWide]

We Hungarians call "pavo real" [peacock] as "páva" (say: paava) but I don't know how it connects to Spanish. Perhaps Latin is the key.

[@edgar1948]

In México we have three names for turkey: pavo, which is Spanish (and what it's called in Spain), guajolote and totol, which are Nahuatl. In urban areas we use pavo, in most rural areas guajolote (but widely known in all of México), and totol, rarely used, mostly in rural areas.

[@Frunze42]

This will make for a great Thanksgiving dinner conversation.

[@zenith1047]

I wonder if part of the reason places like Turkey and France refer to it as "Indian" comes from similar confusion surrounding Native Americans being called "Indians." Like, they do acknowledge that it comes from the New World, but they were still misnaming it from Columbus's folly.

[@RobWords]

Yes, that's the same confusion as I mention when I talk about the misnaming of the West Indies. It's the best explanation I can find... Other than countries just naming the exotic meat after the most exotic place they could think of...

[@Hossein118]

Yeah. Sounds very plausible.

[@mike200017]

Almost for sure. In French (Quebec), corn is called "blé d'Inde", literally, "wheat from India". Also, a guinea pig is called "cochon d'Inde" ("pig from India"). I've always understood those to be named that way due to the whole "America is India" thing.

[@iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643]

At the beginning, the French called that animal ‘poule d’inde’ (hen from India). Later shortened dinde.

[@ElizabethJones-pv3sj]

@@mike200017 In English it was also called 'Indian Corn' as corn was a generic term for any grain and if necessary you added the specific type of grain (e.g. there's an old folk song called John Barleycorn) but language shifted and the use of corn to mean any grain slowly dropped out (faster in the US than Britain) and so 'Indian Corn' was shortened to just corn.

[@citrous]

I cant unsee you as Tamsin Greig now

[@johnnyrosenberg9522]

”Kalkon” in Swedish, pronounced approximately like ”Cul-coon”. We actually also use it for bad films, ”kalkonfilm”, but I think it was originally just for films that were haussed up very much and when you saw it you wondered what that was all about. ”Much noise for nothing”, just like a kalkon, I think.

[@aaronsgiles]

Fun video! A related topic for a future video could be meat words in general and why in some case the same word is used for the animal and the derived food (turkey, chicken, etc) while other meats have different words (cow/beef, pig/pork, deer/venison, sheep/mutton), and why the food-related words seem to come from the French. Not sure there's enough there to work with but it's something that piques my curiosity.

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

It's generally believed to be due to the Norman invasion. The nobility spoke French and ate the meat raised by the Anglo-Saxon speaking peasants.

[@domrogg4362]

In Croatian it's Purica (Poo-ree-tsah) or Puran (for male). Apparently it has the same etymology as in Portuguese, from Peru, probably came into Croatian from Italian "peruano" (Peruvian). There is also "Tuka(c)" in some dialects.

[@z000ey]

Tuka most likely came from "Turska" (Croatian name for Turkey), with the people using those dialects notorious for dropping sounds from words ;) hint for non-Croats: Dalmatia

[@msjr71]

Slovenian etymological dictionary says that the word ‛Pura / Puran‛ is etymologically unclear, perhaps it is derived from the lure call ‛pur-pur‛, perhaps from ‛púriti se‛ - ‛to be timid, discouraged', which is presumably related to Czech. ‛púřiti sě‛ - ‛to be presumptuous, haughty'.

[@lordpetrolhead477]

Absolutely brilliant video!!

[@pozzee2809]

Love your witty humour. So glad I stumbled onto your channel.

[@NickRoman]

Which definitely isn't hilarious. Then, why am I laughing?

[@Davidhjrick]

Please also do Chicken. I once went to a museum in South America and saw an ancient spelling of Chicken as Tichken! I’ve always wondered how Chicken began.

[@arthurhenriqued.a.ribeiro2078]

Did you have a good "axolotl" dinner this Thanksgiving? Also, I just noticed you could call it a "Guajolote", like in Mexican Spanish, or a "Omaksipiksi" (maybe a "Omaxipixi"); I'd go with the former.

[@adamengland5811]

People in Mexico mostly call it pavo, nowadays. That is, for both the bird and the meat.

[@rodrigocardenas3269]

In some regions of Colombia is called pavo and in others pisco (peesko), sounds a little like (omaksi)-peeksee? Hehe.

[@TomLaios]

In Greek ,we call it Gallopoula, or French-Bird. The ancient Greek word for bird was "ornis" where we get ornithology, today corrupted into "ornio" an idiot, or a vulture."Pouli" the modern Greek word for bird, is possibly a loan word from French "pullet".

[@Tflexxx02]

"Poultry" in English (probably from the French) is any kind of bird, or foul, like chicken. You would distinguish between "meat" (like "beef", also from French) and "poultry" (like chicken).

[@SatumainenOlento]

In Finnish Kalkkuna. Sounds similar again and as we would have got turkey through Europe, this is the route where our name for it comes too.

[@fmmaj9noname332]

@@Tflexxx02 Back in the few hundred years after the Norman Invasion, you had two systems of naming domesticated foods, one Anglo-Saxon, which described the animals, and the other Norman French, which described the meats of those animals. So you had cow/cattle (beef), fowl (poultry), calf (veal), sheep (mutton), pig/swine (pork), etc

[@fmmaj9noname332]

By the way, it's γαλοπούλα, or male turkey (galos) bird. It doesn't have anything to do with the French, but try telling that to my Greek in-laws, who call it "το γάλλο" every year!

[@TomLaios]

@@fmmaj9noname332 I always thought it was Gallos for French. I have learnt something new.Thanks.

[@jujulobo18]

OMG my grandmother's surname is Habash! Unexpected thrill 😊😆

[@karlbasallote6719]

Here in the Philippines 🇵🇭 we called it "pabo". And I think it is a unique way of calling that bird.

[@theguybehindyou7418]

Is it the Tagalog language?

[@B2BWide]

I guess it comes from the Spanish "Pavo". A V-->B consonant change is not rare.

[@danidejaneiro8378]

I love how so much history can be encased in a single word. It blew mind mind to discover that in Arabic, the fruit we call _orange_ is called a _portugali_

[@jarekferenc1149]

... or "portakal" in Turkish.

[@danidejaneiro8378]

@@jarekferenc1149 - awesome!

[@onclebob2178]

Porteghal in Persian

[@onclebob2178]

Al-burtuqaliu in Arabic, because Arabs don’t have P

[@panoseleftheriou6078]

in greek its a portokάli too

[@guilace]

In Spanish they were named after peacocks (pavo) Now peacocks are called (pavo real) meaning royal turkey

[@KitKat-xh1tq]

In Lakota (Sioux) we call it Waglekshun

[@simonegamberoni2733]

I will add that while in Italy turkey it's called "tacchino" in the dialect of the region where I live (Marche) it's called "DINDO". Which, after seeing this video, makes me think that it probably comes from something like "D'INDIA" which means "from India". Thank you Rob!

[@markanthonycoliinson873]

The two German words for turkey are interesting. The most common of which is 'pute' (pronounced pooter as in scooter) which is derived from the Middle Lower German word 'pūte' which was imitative of a birds call, as in the modern High German word 'put' still used to call chickens at feeding time and so forth. Then there's the synonym 'Truthahn'' from trut +‎ Hahn ( trut from the Middle Low German 'drōten' meaning 'threaten' and 'hahn' meaning cock or rooster .) Therefore the word 'Truthahn' basically means an aggressive chicken (or cock). However, as I've said 'pute' is the most commonly used word, at least in north Germany where I lived for most of my adult life.

[@willempasterkamp862]

dutch - german - english ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- struis - Strauss - stout / ostrich potig - kraftig - sturdy fors - stammig - hefty puit - Pute - bulge bultig - drusig - humped trut - Hundin - tart / bitch steenbolk - Schmollmund - pout puitaal - Bein Aal - eelpout pootaardappel - Pflanzkartoffel - seed potato

[@paulawashington3175]

Wild turkeys can indeed be threatening!

[@carmenm.4091]

I thought that the name Kalkoen that we use in the Netherlands was because of the sound it makes. Never thought it meant India. It might mean Calcutta or Kolkata… interesting

[@johndododoe1411]

I too thought that Kalkun referred to the kluk-kluk bird, not the Kolkata bird.

[@bndergltd3053]

In Icelandic we call it kalkúnn so pretty much the same

[@SluttChops]

It's also called Kalkun in Estonia.

[@omen4s976]

Very similar to the finnish word kalkkuna

[@hirakd2800]

This was brilliant Rob...am your avid follower. Thanks for your videos, they are very informative.

[@Comrade_Jason]

Your videos are GREAT! I could gobble them all up!

[@peteymax]

The mom from Friday Night Dinner 😂 great video. There’s a very similar story about why the Spanish call the peacock “Pavo real” or royal or fancy turkey, peru, hindi, etc. in Irish this dry bird is called a turcaí, which sounds just like turkey 🦃 where the country is called An Tuirc (pronounced “on Turk” and kind of means the place of the Turks. Saludos, sláinte

[@mercedesmarton3768]

peacock in Italian is pavone, and in Hungarian páva

[@johnlloyddy7016]

In the Philippines, a Turkey is called a "Pabo", a corruption of "Pavo" (there is no letter V in the Filipino alphabet.) probably due to the fact that the country was colonized by Spain for 300 years and Spanish was adopted as the official language by the co!onizers.

[@paulmargett9360]

Another fun filled factual five minutes. Thanks Rob. You always remind me of James Blunt ( voice mainly, if you've ever heard him speaking) Have a good Xmas and New year 🍾🥂

[@RobWords]

I've had Blunt before actually! Have a very merry Christmas, Paul. And a smashing New Year!

[@cdoesthehula]

@@RobWords Are you sure they said Blunt? Happy Christmas matey. Lovely surprise to come across these.

[@RobWords]

@@cdoesthehula Chris, you naughty man. Have a smashing Christmas mate!

[@AutoReport1]

It's like currants. True currants are a type of small dried grape that was exported from Corinth, but black and red currants are unrelated berries from North America.

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

Several species of non-raisin currants (genus Ribe) are native to Europe and Asia, including the commercially important blackcurrant (a.k.a. cassis). The plants were banned from import to the United States for most of the last century because it is a vector for a pine tree disease which was perceived as a threat to commercial logging.

[@larskaaber9869]

In Danish, turkey is "kalkun", almost as in Dutch. But your video reminded me how we shift the blame for "Danish" (the pastry) which in German is "dänisch" (adopted by the Americans) but in Danish is "wienerbrød" - Viennese bread. Back at ya.

[@rainer_]

The German word Truthahn is perhaps the most accurate then. "Trut-" might simply refer to the sound they make or (according to other sources) mean "threaten" because of their seemingly aggressive behaviour.

[@RobWords]

In which case, I'm looking forward to my threatening hen dinner this Christmas. Any insight on where Pute comes from?

[@rainer_]

​@@RobWords The Internet says its also their sounds or trying to lure them by saying "put put". Etymology is weird. ;-)

[@RobWords]

@@rainer_ Agreed. I learnt the other day that a "turtle dove" also ultimately gets its name from the noise it makes too: turtur.

[@thedreadtyger]

the behavior is not "seemingly " aggressive, i assure you. i have raised them. but the peacock is even more so.

[@willempasterkamp862]

@@RobWords In dutch peut or puit (dialect pute) means bulge, thickness or swelling. for instance 'puitaal' is the name for a thick matured (pubescent) eel ; which is in the phase to migrate (what takes a year or so) to the deep ocean for spawning. english pouteel. Also similar in dutch 'poot-aard-appel' is seed - potato. What you call pout (fish) is in dutch 'steenbolk' , literally stone-bulge (of his humped back). Back to the birds, pute is not of the behavior but of the outlook : swollen or stout. In dutch we call an ostrich 'struisvogel' = 'stout-bird', similar 'een struise dame' = a stout lady. Seemingly german Trut is also 'stout'. A dutch 'trut' is an english tart. A dutch 'taart' is an english cake/pastry. Dutch 'stout' means naughty but in old-dutch it means brave. Oostenrijk is dutch for german Ostenreich, thus an ostrich = an austrian.

[@aeciosxtnr]

In Portuguese we have the same thing with another country: Peru 🇵🇪 . But in Portuguese, Peru also means turkey the animal.

[@danidejaneiro8378]

Yeah we know because we watched the video.

[@NickSayers]

3:05 “The mum from Friday Night Dinner” (Tamsin Greig). LOL! Uncanny. Cannot be unseen.

[@vulcanstarlight]

I love the charming humor and affability in Rob’s uploads. I enjoy the content and the puns which always bring a smile to my face. I thank you Rob, for these wonderfully engaging videos!

[@alexanderdoepel4706]

I’ve got one more: My Austrian grandmothers called turkeys „Indian“. This doesn’t refer to the original „turkey“ but rather to the real bird from America. Most likely because the indigenous Americans have been and are still being called Indians („Indianer“) in German. Nowadays the turkey is being called „Truthahn“ or „Pute“ in German. Why? Because of their „put-put-put“ or „trut-trut-trut“ sounds (in German „put“ sounds exactly like the English verb „put“ and rhymes with „trut“).

[@Pix3K]

The Italian word for Turkey is "Tacchino". its name is derived from the sound a Turkey makes + the diminutive end -ino we also have a cognate of the french "Dinde", being "Dindo".

[@smoker_joe]

In French Dinde comes from "poule d'Inde' (Chicken from India) because we were convinced that India had been reached from the other side ^^

[@blender_wiki]

Totally wrong etimology. Il Salvini attribuite the origins to the french "tache" macchia or from "tacca" "taccato".

[@laurawoodford1225]

You should be on pbs or bbc special!!! Love your videos!

[@marie_171]

Amazing video. I didn't realize there was a real link with turkey and the turkish country. Thanks also for your other videos. They are amazing!

[@hussitewagoner6838]

The Cherokee from the south east US called them gvna ( ga -na) . A primary animal of their creation story . Flocks ranging from 20 to 30 birds are common here . And the most challenging and exhilarating to hunt legally . Old timers ( before hunting law changes) would bait a curved ditch and kill several at a time, which is one reason numbers declined early last century.

[@aylen7062]

It would make more sense if its name in European languages came from that. It's not even hard to pronounce at all. Same for other North-American languages. But no, they had to re-name it as the name of a country that has nothing to do with it.

[@monokromis]

LOVE FROM TURKEY 😅❤️🇹🇷

[@hkumar7340]

Turkiye, you mean.

[@bernstock]

LOL Alan Partridge. Cannot unsee! haha brilliant vids Mr

[@dpuertas]

The confusion between the bird (pavo) is so vexing and... confusing!,😂

[@pikckazinkavicius1235]

Funnily enough, in my native language, the name of the bird (kalakutas) refers not even to a country, but to a specific city (Calcutta).

[@theguybehindyou7418]

Is it Lithuanian?

[@pikckazinkavicius1235]

@@theguybehindyou7418 Yep.

[@vasilkraychev8194]

Bulgarian official word is "puyka" for the bird and for the female one. The male is "puyak". There are also two dialect words, "fitka" (m. "fitok") and "missirka" (m. "missir"). "Missir" is also a dialect word for corn cob. Go figure where they came from.

[@danielnielsen888]

misir is egypt in turkish no? again going to geographic naming.

[@sabkobds]

Don't you have something like other south Slavic: ćurka (ћурка) - male: ćuran, or purica / puran (more used in Croatian). Ćurka sounds like adopted from English (Ć is like fast TY) - but could be something else.

[@aleksandarmiloeski7637]

Daniel Nielsen is right. The South Balkan мисирка (misirka) is from Ottoman Turkish mısır, from the Arabic word for Egypt. So it's pretty much the same thing.

[@jozsefizsak]

What a wonderful channel this is!

[@lorraineannheron3515]

Love your channel, very entertaining and funny and intellectual, thankyou 🙂

[@hussitewagoner6838]

Turkey is not a dry meat if you know how to cook it . Brine it . And guinea is a much tastier meat bird . No comparisons except to quail .

[@tunistick8044]

and in classical arabic we call it "addīkur-rūmī" which literally means the roman or the byzantian roaster/cock. So yeah it's italian 🇮🇹

[@Skyfighter94]

the "roman" in that probably refers to East-Rome or Byzantine as you correctly mentioned. Which is not Italian but also Turkey.

[@tunistick8044]

@@Skyfighter94 prooably it's Greece so it's Greek 🇬🇷

[@seraphina985]

I guess probably that is a hangover from the fact for a long time most stuff coming into Arabia from the west would have gotten there via Rome or it's Eastern remnant. So maybe it became something of a blanket term for stuff that came from or was being sold by Europeans or Westerners in general. That would make sense as it probably would be Western European merchant ships that were their first introduction to the birds. Groups tend to get clustered in with the monolithic neighbour blocking direct access to them when it goes on for a long time like that because all knowledge of them gets associated with the intermediary.

[@FLStelth]

I love your content and your dead-pan delivery. Great work!

[@dpuertas]

In Peruvian spanish, it is called pavo, which doesn't really reference to any country but I'm going to make sure...

[@jqq509]

In Russian, it's called индейка, not индийка. The first came from индеец (a native American), and the second would have come from индус (a Hindu).

[@MrWr99]

А «индюк» это от индейцев или индийцев

[@SydneyinArgyle]

"The Native Americans" were not one tribe with one language, nor are the 2 words you chose for turkey "impossible". Feels like a linguistic jab to wrap up the video.

[@Dr_Larken]

I literally found your channel a few days ago when I was learning Russian I came to KZbin to find something specific from one of my Russian speaking KZbinrs, and honestly the first two videos of watched I was like yeah I’m never gonna need the information from this guy and then yesterday I came across another video and then another video so I said screw it I’m subscribing this dude Shelly goes out of his way to bring up stuff that is both interesting and useful!

[@rachelrasmussen1101]

As a Canadian, this really clears up the whole "Canadian Bacon" puzzle (since nobody in Canada calls what U.S. refers to as "Canadian Bacon" Bacon. We call bacon "bacon" and "Canadian Bacon" as far as I can tell is just round ham.)

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

The meat called Canadian bacon in the US is called back bacon in Canada, because it's made from the long muscle on the back, as opposed to side bacon, what most people think of as just bacon, made from the very fatty meat on the side of the pig. These terms are not as common as they once were. Back bacon by the chunk, and now also sliced is called peameal bacon, even if it's usually cornmeal that the chunks were rolled in. Chunks of back bacon are also sold as cottage roll. Go figure.

[@JfromUK_]

Loving your videos, Rob. I knew it had various other incorrect country references but came for the theories 👌

[@vaughanscott4580]

Wow crazy I've lived in South Africa (where we have lots of guinea fowl)my whole life(30 something years) and never heard of people eating them. Love how learning about the origin of words teaches one so many other things. :)

[@omarestrada542]

In Mexico nowadays it's got a lot of names, some regional, some spaniard. Guajolote, pavo, pipila, totol, etc. 🦃🦃🦃

[@DROIDFARM]

So funny! Thank you for posting this!

[@JoshyCC]

The last explanation I read about origin of turkey's name described the old imported bird, "Turkey fowl," but it neglected to mention the geographical area the bird was native to. I love the extra detail that you go into! Thank you for sharing with us!