Jack Lynch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
“Meleagris Gallopavo Day” is a bit of a mouthful. Which may be why this Thanksgiving, most people will opt for the less ornithologically precise “Turkey Day.”
And just as turkey is a versatile meat – think of those leftover options! – so too is the word “turkey,” which can refer to everything from the bird itself to a populous Eurasian country to movie flops.
As a scholar who studies word origins, I love “talking turkey” – not only how the bird came to be named, but also how the word has evolved over time. But let’s start with what has become the centerpiece of most Thanksgiving Day dinners.
The North American turkey – the kind that many families will be carving up this Thanksgiving – was being domesticated in Mexico some 2,000 years ago.
Europeans glimpsed their first turkeys around 1500, when Spanish explorers arrived in the Americas and brought them back to the mother country. By the 1520s, turkeys were being bred in Spain, and soon the delicacy was appearing on rich people’s tables across Europe.
But what to call the new import? Europeans in the New World were overwhelmed by the new plants and animals they saw, and often used familiar names for unfamiliar species. The Spanish, for instance, thought turkeys looked like peacocks, so they used the Spanish word “pavos.” The French called them “poules d’Indes,” or Indian chickens, later shortened to “dinde.”
To the English, the newly discovered American birds looked like the guineafowl – a bird native to Africa but which was introduced into Europe by Arab and Turkish traders in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The Ottoman Empire was then at its height. Ethnic Turks, based in Constantinople (now Istanbul), ran the empire that spanned the Near East, Middle East and North Africa. As a result, to many Europeans, anyone from “the East” was a “Turk.”
Because Ottomans dominated trade in the eastern Mediterranean, a lot of produce coming to Europe was seen as “Turkish.” So a precious stone from Persia was named “Turkey stone,” and the French version of that name, “pierre turquoise,” gave us the word “turquoise.”
In the same way, African guineafowl, introduced by Turkish traders, became a “turkey-cock” or “turkey-hen.” Over time, this was shortened to just “turkey.”
As we gear up for Thanksgiving celebrations across the country, you may hear the phrase “talk turkey” used in conversations about the upcoming feast. But what exactly does this peculiar expression mean and where did it come from? In this article we’ll explore the origins and evolution of “talk turkey” and provide examples of how it’s used in everyday speech.
The Mysterious Origins
The first documented usage of “talk turkey” appeared in print back in 1824 But pinpointing exactly how and where it emerged has proven tricky for etymologists,
Several origin stories have circulated over the years. One apocryphal tale describes a hunting trip where a white man persuaded his Native American companion to take the undesirable buzzards instead of the tasty wild turkeys. When the Native American realized he was getting the short end of the stick, he supposedly told the other hunter “You’re not talking turkey to me.”
Another speculative explanation links the phrase to early interactions between settlers and Native Americans, who were said to have inquired “you come to talk turkey?” whenever they crossed paths with colonists, due to the reliance on wild turkeys for food and trade.
While the precise roots remain shrouded in mystery, there’s no doubt the expression spread quickly once it entered the vernacular. By the mid-1800s, “talk turkey” was a widely understood idiom on both sides of the Atlantic.
Shifting Meanings Over Time
The connotation of “talk turkey” has evolved quite a bit since its inception. Some of the early documented uses portrayed it as meaning “to talk pleasantly.” But by the late 1800s, it had taken on the more familiar definition of having a sincere, straightforward dialogue.
An even more specific sense emerged around this time: “talking turkey” as a way to describe serious negotiations, especially in high-stakes business deals. So if two CEOs retreat to the proverbial smoke-filled room to hash out the terms of a merger, it’s a safe bet they’ll be “talking turkey” in there!
The related phrase “talk cold turkey” surfaced in the early 20th century, referring to candid discussions of hard facts and realities. Of course, nowadays “cold turkey” is better known for meaning abruptly quitting an addictive habit, though the two uses probably developed independently.
How We Use It Today
Flash forward to the present day, and Americans tend to trot out “talk turkey” during the Thanksgiving season. It’s a fitting nod to the traditional main course and Evans celebrate with family and friends.
But the idiom extends beyond turkey day puns. We often use it in a tongue-in-cheek way before serious conversations, especially those involving finances, business negotiations, politics, or other weighty topics.
You’ll commonly hear it used as a question too: “Ready to talk turkey about this proposal?” “Let’s talk turkey about the budget.” “We need to talk turkey on how to handle this situation.”
So next time you need to have an earnest, nuts-and-bolts discussion, you’ll be all set to “talk turkey”! Tracing the journey of this folksy phrase reminds us language is constantly evolving – often in delightfully mysterious ways.
Frequency of Entities:
[talk turkey] : 16 times
[meaning] : 8 times
[phrase] : 7 times
[origin] : 5 times
[thanksgiving] : 2 times
[straightforward] : 2 times
[conversation] : 2 times
[idiom] : 2 times
[native american] : 2 times
[early] : 2 times
[settlers] : 1 time
[etymologists] : 1 time
[apocryphal] : 1 time
[verncular] : 1 time
[atlantic] : 1 time
[connotation] : 1 time
[smoke-filled room] : 1 time
[ceos] : 1 time
[merger] : 1 time
[addictive habit] : 1 time
[present day] : 1 time
[tongue-in-cheek] : 1 time
[finances] : 1 time
[business negotiations] : 1 time
[politics] : 1 time
[weighty topics] : 1 time
[proposal] : 1 time
[budget] : 1 time
[situation] : 1 time
[folksy] : 1 time
[mysterious] : 1 time
[language] : 1 time
[evolving] : 1 time
Now that’s a feast!
For as long as the New World turkeys have been in Europe, they’ve been featured in celebratory meals. The English word first appears in print in an account of a banquet hosted by politician John Prideaux in 1555: The menu included 38 red deer, 43 pheasants, 50 quince pies, 63 swans, 114 pigeons, 120 rabbits, 840 larks, 325 gallons of Bordeaux wine and “Turkies 2. rated at 4s. a piece.”
History’s most famous turkey dinner, though, was served in Plymouth Plantation in 1621, as 50 Pilgrims who survived a year of brutal hardship joined 90 Native Americans for a three-day feast. Turkey wasn’t the only dish being served. Writing in his History of Plymouth Plantation, Governor William Bradford noted that Native Americans brought “codd, & bass, & other fish,” and others brought “water foule” and venison. But he was especially impressed with the “great store of wild Turkies.”
The bird has become so associated with harvest-time celebratory dinners that we’ve been calling Thanksgiving “Turkey Day” since at least 1870.
Meanwhile, the word has continued to find new uses, showing up with dozens of meanings. In 1839, the Southern Literary Messenger – a magazine edited by Edgar Allen Poe – reported on a new kind of dance, called the “turkey-trot” from its jerking motions.
In 1920, New York’s Department of Health reported that “Some addicts voluntarily stop taking opiates and ‘suffer it out’ … which in their slang is called taking ‘cold turkey.‘”
The turkey’s reputation for stupidity prompted other meanings. The legendary gossip columnist Walter Winchell told readers of Vanity Fair in 1927 about some new showbiz slang: “‘A turkey,’” he reported, “is a third rate production.”
Since then, movies that flop with the critics or at the box office have been called turkeys.
Another disparaging sense arrived in the 1950s, when turkey became a name for “a stupid, slow, inept, or otherwise worthless person.” That, in turn, probably led to the rise of the “jive turkey,” which first showed up in African American speech in the early 1970s, defined by slang lexicographer Jonathon Green as “an insincere, deceitful, dishonest person.”
The Idiom: Talk Turkey
FAQ
What does the phrase talk turkey mean?
What does turkey mean in slang?
What is a synonym for talking turkey?
What does the idiom talking cold turkey mean?
What does talk turkey mean?
OK, let’s talk turkey – you’re broke and you don’t have work. What are you going to do? 坦率認真地談話… 坦率认真地谈话… Need a translator? Get a quick, free translation! TALK TURKEY definition: 1. to discuss something honestly and directly: 2. to discuss something honestly and directly: . Learn more.
What does let’s talk turkey mean?
The phrase let’s talk turkey means let’s discuss the practical details of something (often a business deal). Talk turkey definition. What is the meaning of talk turkey? Learn this English idiom along with other words and phrases at Writing Explained.
What does talk turkey mean on Thanksgiving?
Before you talk turkey this Thanksgiving, find out what we know about the phrase’s meaning and origins. Around Thanksgiving, you may use the phrase talk turkey literally to discuss the bird you’re having for dinner, but initially, the phrase—which was first recorded in 1824— meant “to discuss something pleasantly.”
Why do people talk turkey?
If people talk turkey, they discuss something in an open and serious way, in order to solve a problem. Suddenly government and industry are talking turkey. Last month the Prime Minister promised a partnership to improve the climate for business. The next day we got a call to say that he wanted to talk turkey.