The original word “turkey” has its roots in a word that means “cock of Calicut”, dating back to when the Old World explorers brought turkeys from Mesoamerica around the world with them in trade – turkeys seemed to take to the Kerala climate well, so they were raised as expensive dinner birds – similar to pheasants in the Western world – for export…
…and Istanbul was a major port of call for exported Indian turkeys, thus leading to the new moniker.
(Just another incident of the Arab world getting the credit for Indian innovations. Not as major as the reappropriation of the number zero, or indeed the entire decimal system, as Bertrand Russell will attest…)
The original word “turkey” has its roots in a word that means “cock of Calicut”, dating back to when the Old World explorers brought turkeys from Mesoamerica around the world with them in trade – turkeys seemed to take to the Kerala climate well, so they were raised as expensive dinner birds – similar to pheasants in the Western world – for export…
…and Istanbul was a major port of call for exported Indian turkeys, thus leading to the new moniker.
(Just another incident of the Arab world getting the credit for Indian innovations. Not as major as the reappropriation of the number zero, or indeed the entire decimal system, as Bertrand Russell will attest…)