[etni] giving thanks
- From: Israel Cohen <cohen.izzy@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Kara Aharon <aharonmk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:36:15 +0200
Kara Aharon wrote:
> I also wonder if it's just a coincidence that the bird called hodu
> was discovered in the place that Columbus thought was Hodu.
This is not a coincidence. This seems to be the consensus of professional
linguistic opinion about why we call it 3oF HoDu.
Here is the entry from the Online Etymological Dictionary:
turkey (n.)<http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=turkey&allowed_in_frame=0>
1540s, "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), imported from Madagascar via
Turkey, by Near East traders known as turkey merchants. The larger North
American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) was domesticated by the Aztecs,
introduced to Spain by conquistadors (1523) and thence to wider Europe, by
way of North Africa (then under Ottoman rule) and Turkey (Indian corn was
originally turkey cornor turkey wheat in English for the same reason).
The word turkey was first applied to it in English 1550s because it was
identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl. The Turkish
name for it is hindi, lit. "Indian," probably via M.Fr. dinde(c.1600,
contracted from poulet d'inde, lit. "chicken from India," Mod.Fr. dindon),
based on the common misconception that the New World was eastern Asia.
The New World bird itself reputedly reached England by 1524 at the earliest
estimate, though a date in the 1530s seems more likely. By 1575, turkey was
becoming the usual main course at an English Christmas. Meaning "inferior
show, failure," is 1927 in show business slang, probably from the bird's
reputation for stupidity. Meaning "stupid, ineffectual person" is recorded
from 1951. Turkey shoot"something easy" is World War II-era, in ref. to
marksmanship contests where turkeys were tied behind a log with their heads
showing as targets.
It was quite common to name an imported item from the place it was exported
from. The Latin word for "cotton" was Gossypium ... exported from Goshen.
Compare English "gossamer", literally, sea-cotton, that is having the
appearance of foam washed up on the beach. The standard derivation for
"gossamer" is nonsense. :-)
Sometimes a place was named after the product it exported. Brazil from
Phoenician BaRZeL = iron? Argentina from the Latin word for silver
(chemical symbol: Ag). Which came first: Cyprus or copper?
I have some doubts whether Columbus himself thought he had arrived in
India. I also doubt that North & South America were named after Amerigo
Vespucci, a 3rd rate explorer. It is more likely that both Amerigo and the
Americas were named after the god Mercury, a reversal of kHermes. However,
it is historical fact that the early map-makers claimed the two continents
were named after Vespucci. I suspect he was a fig-leaf to avoid censure by
the medieval Church that would strongly disapprove of naming continents
after a pagan god.
Ciao,
Izzy
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