List of names for the Wild Turkey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The names for the Wild Turkey, the North American species, in other languages also frequently reflect its chaotic origins, seen from an Old World viewpoint, and confusion about where it actually comes from. See Turkey for the etymology of the scientific name Meleagris.
- In Spanish the turkey is called pavo, Latin for peafowl. In Mexican Spanish it is also known as guajolote, a name of Nahuatl origin, from hueyxolotl meaning 'big xolotl'.
- In Turkish the bird is called hindi which means "from & related to India"; likewise the French d'inde ("from India").
- In Maltese it is called dundjan (pronounced doonDYAHN), another, maybe not so obvious, reference to India.
- In Hebrew the turkey is called tarnegol hodu (תרנגול הודו), literally meaning "Indian rooster." Coincidentally, the Hebrew word for India (hodu) can be read as a homonym of the verb "thank" (albeit only in its imperative plural form and without diacritics, as they have different stresses and are thus pronounced somewhat differently), which may contribute to a popular misconception that the word's etymology connotes "Thanksgiving rooster."
- In Russian it is called indiuk (индюк), and in Yiddish indik (אינדיק), both relating to India.
- In Catalan it is called gall d'indi, literally meaning "Indian chicken".
- The Dutch word is kalkoen derived from the city Calicut in India, likewise Danish and Norwegian kalkun, and Swedish kalkon, as well as in Papiamento kalakuna.
- In Portuguese the word for turkey is peru, which also refers to the country Peru.
- In Arabic it is called dīk rūmī (ديك رومي) meaning "Roman rooster" (in which "Roman" historically referred to the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire and later to the geographic areas that now comprise Turkey), or, less commonly, "Ethiopian bird."
- In Colloquial Egyptian Arabic it is called the "Greek Bird".
- In Greek it is gallopoula which means "French girl" or "French bird".
- In Scottish Gaelic it is called cearc frangach, meaning "French chicken".
- In Japan the turkey is called shichimencho (七面鳥) and in Korea chilmyeonjo, both of which translate as "seven-faced bird". This is said to reflect the ability of the bird, particularly the male, to change the form of its face depending on its mood.
- In Chinese it is called huoji (火鸡) which means "fire chicken", named after the color of the head.
- In Indonesian it is called Kalkun and derived from Dutch word kalkoen
- In Bahasa Melayu it is called either "Ayam Piru" from the Portuguese name for the bird or "Ayam Belanda" (Dutch Chicken)
- In Bulgarian it is Пуйка (puijka) but a dialect version is Мисирка (misirka), which comes from the Arabic word for Egypt
- In Polish it is Indyk.
