Why is turkey called turkey?

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The Babe is Armed!

Turkey is called Turkey because that's what it's called. The thing I want to know is "Why is the sky blue?" Once we get that out of the way, then we can get down to proper business, like "What's your favorite color?" If that question ever gets resolved, then, and only then, I will concern myself with whether or not your avatar really looks like you.

Ă§etin

i dedicate my answer to NAMIK KEMAL!
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/turkey.htm

smckech1972

Turkey.

The term turkey was originally applied to the "Guinea-fowl", apparently because the bird was imported through Turkish territory. When the American bird we now know as the turkey was introduced to the British in the mid 16th century it reminded them of the " Guinea fowl " from Turkey and they called the bird a Turkey bird.

Source: Ayto Dictionary of Word Origins, 1983.

Tanju

Hi,

The name for Turkey in the Turkish language, TĂĽrkiye, can be divided into two words: TĂĽrk, which means "strong" in Old Turkic and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples,[5] a later form of "tu-kin", name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BCE;[6] and the abstract suffix -iye (derived from Arabic), which means "owner" or "related to". The first recorded use of the term "TĂĽrk" or "TĂĽrĂĽk" as an autonym is contained in the Orkhon inscriptions of the GĂ¶ktĂĽrks (Sky Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century CE). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369).[6]

Ref : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey

.:::Niko:::.

I protest you for receiving 2 stars

Totally Blunt

I don't know, you tell us. We call the country TĂĽrkiye. If there is a mis-wording, it is your problem, not ours.

Edit: Ha! Take this, High Tech! Star wars... mmm, I mean thumbs-up/down wars!

DejaVu- RETURNS

Well cos English speakers could not pronounce the word 'TĂĽrkiye'

that's funny isn't it, specially when they expect everyone to speak English lol

Qu'est ce que tu pense?

Turks call the country, Turkiye...it's most likely that the Americans didn't know how to pronounce it and simply went with a similar and easier version, Turkey.

crazygirl158

It goes way back to the stupidness of british but if you practically think that's where turks live right?
Turkiye named itself Turkiye(which doesn't mean the bird turkey)
and British named Turkiye Turkey because they add y at the end of every country ..Ex: Germany , Italy, Hungary...

Also I don't get these people India-Hindistan means the head of the turkeys but we don't get confused with that aor with the fact that egypt-misir means corn in turkish... Guess we're smarter...

alf w

It's called turkey, cos it doesn't look like a chicken, duck, sparrow, emu, it looks like a turkey.

alex n

answer no 7 is kinda close yes in around 1580 european exploreres mistook it for a turkey ****(similar looking) but smaller than the native american turkey
i need to get out more.................