[ad. F. turc; origin and history uncertain. As early as 1688 associated in French with the national name turc TURK; but Littré and Hatz.-Darm. treat it as a distinct word.
Boyceau de la Baraudière, Tr. du Jardin, 58 (1688) has ‘Les poiriers de bon chrestien en sont sur tous autres endommagez, et c’est pourquoy on a nommé ce ver Turc.’ But the American Little Turk is said to be named from the crescent-shaped punctures made in the fruit by the female.]
The larva of an insect (perh. of the fruit-bark beetle, Scolytus rugulosus) dreaded for the destruction it does to pear-trees by mining under the bark; also, the larva of the cockchafer (Littré). According to Century Dict., the plum-weevil or plum-curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar, which is very destructive to fruit-trees generally, is known as the Turk or Little Turk.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 173. The great Enemies to Trees, are … Snails, Tons, Turks, and abundance of Worms. Ibid., 176. Turks are certain white Worms that get into Trees and eat Holes in them, running betwixt the Bark and the Stem.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., vi. (1818), I. 213. Their ravages have long been known in Germany under the name of Wurm trökniss (decay caused by worms); and in the old liturgies of that country the animal itself is formally mentioned under its vulgar appellation, ‘The Turk.’
