751: Turkey and turkey Dec 28, 2016

Are you feeling Hungary for some Turkey? Either way, while the former country has nothing to do with hunger, and is in its own language instead called, Magyar, Turkey the country and turkey the fowl are not so different. The word 'turkey', before the arrival of Europeans in North America, applied to a different bird: guinea fowl, so nicknamed because they were imported to Europe through Turkey. When the Europeans did come to North America and see the turkey (Melleagris gallopavo) as we know today, they mistakenly associated them with guinea fowl and the term stuck.