Dwight Longenecker
When your bird reaches the table this Thursday, you can ask your table mates if they know why the bird is called a turkey, and then—if you have read this essay—impress them with your encyclopedic knowledge.

You remember the Dad joke at this time of year: “We’re having an international Thanksgiving. Mom’s serving Turkey on her best china.” It turns out that the turkey is a more cosmopolitan bird than we first knew. A look at the derivation of the name reveals a truly international origin of the traditional Thanksgiving sacrifice.
Why do we call that big bird a “turkey” Did they originate in Turkey? Do they have anything to do with Turkish delight, Turkish carpets? Turkish cigarettes? Ornithologists disagree about the bird’s origins, but wild turkeys were probably first domesticated in Mexico around 800 BC. The ocellated turkey has a plumage display similar to peacocks, and historians report that Mayan aristocrats and priests had a special regard for them. Spanish chroniclers describe the multitude of food that was offered in the vast markets of Tenochtitlán, noting there were tamales made of turkeys, iguanas, chocolate, vegetables, fruits, and more.
By the way, the fleshy protuberance under the male turkey’s beak is called his “snood.” Like the peacock, the male fans out his tail feathers as part of the mating ritual. His snood is also enlarged, and the more impressive the fan, and the bigger the snood, the more attractive he is to the female.
Wild turkeys migrated north to the American Southwest and were probably domesticated by the indigenous peoples there, but the way turkeys made their way to Europe gives us the bird’s name. The first turkeys were imported by the Spanish around 1519, and it is generally accepted that the first turkey was introduced to Britain in 1526 by William Strickland of Yorkshire.  » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/11/big-bird-called-turkey-dwight-longenecker.html