Also 6–7 turkie, 6–8 turky. Pl. turkeys, formerly turkies. [Short for TURKEY-COCK, -HEN, app. applied orig. to the Guinea-fowl, a native of Africa, with which the American turkey was at first confounded: see TURKEY-COCK.]
† 1. The Guinea-fowl. Obs.
[1552–1601: See TURKEY-COCK 2, TURKEY-HEN 1.]
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 166. They were first brought from Numidia into Turky, and thence to Europe, whereupon they were called Turkies.
2. In current use: A well-known large gallinaceous bird of the Linnæan genus Meleagris, the species of which are all American; esp. M. gallopāvo, which was found domesticated in Mexico at the discovery of that country in 1518, and was soon after introduced into Europe, and is now valued as a table fowl in all civilized lands.
Two races of this, which have been variously regarded as sub-species or species, are found wild, of which one, the Northern wild turkey, which has been variously distinguished as americana, sylvestris, and fera, is a native of the eastern half of the continent, from parts of Canada and the Missouri region to Texas, where it is succeeded by M. mexicana, the Mexican wild turkey. As in the case of many long-domesticated animals, it is doubtful from which of these wild types the domestic turkey has arisen, but the fact that the latter was domesticated in Mexico, and that the northern race shows less adaptability to domestication, favors the opinion that M. mexicana was the source. Some however hold that there may have been two domestic breeds, represented in England by the Norfolk and the Cambridgeshire breeds, or that at least mixture with americana has taken place. Another species, M. ocellata, which inhabits Guatemala, is smaller and much more beautiful; it has not been tamed.
(The first two quotations app. belong to this sense.)
1555. in Dugdale, Orig. Jurid., xlviii. (1666), 135. Turkies 2. rated at 4s. a piece … 00. 08. 00.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 89. Runciuall pease … more tender and greater they wex, If peacock and turkey leaue iobbing their bex.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. i. 29. The Turkies in my Pannier are quite starued.
1616. Capt. Smith, Descr. New Eng., 29. Teale, Meawes, Guls, Turkies, Diue-doppers.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 32. The Turkey is a very large Bird, of a blacke colour, yet white in flesh.
1643. Baker, Chron. (1660), 317. About [1524], it happened that divers things were newly brought into England, whereupon this Rhyme was made: ‘Turkeys, Carps, Hoppes, Piccarell, and Beer, Came into England all in one year.’
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 116. Others [Pigeons] walked on the Ground, with their Breasts bearing out, and the Feathers of their Tails spreading like Turkies.
a. 1705. Prior, Ladle, 74. Fat Turkeys gobbling at the Door.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), I. 213. The Turky was unknown to the antient naturalists, and even to the old world before the discovery of America.
1805. Southey, Madoc, II. xi. The loud turkey’s voice Is heralding the dawn.
1860. Tylor, Anahuac, ix. (1861), 228. The turkey, which was introduced into Europe from Mexico, was called ‘huexolotl’ from the gobbling noise it makes.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. iv. 115. Civilities at Christmas, in the way of turkeys and boxes of raisins.
b. Wild turkey, the wild original of the domestic fowl; commonly applied to the North American bird: see above and sense 3.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 762. They haue Eagles, Haukes, wilde Turkeys and other Fowle.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 27. Wild Turkies are as bigge as our tame.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 260. I knew a Gentleman that had a Hen-Turkey of the wild kind from Virginia; of which, and an English Cock, he raised a very fine Breed.
1830. ‘B. Moubray,’ Domest. Poultry, x. (ed. 6), 81. There is a sameness of colour in the wild turkey, and the original stock seems to have been black, domestication generally inducing a variety of colours.
1849. D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855), 138. Two species only are known to naturalists, namely, the common wild turkey, (Meleagris gallopavo,) of North America, the origin of our domestic stock, and the Honduras turkey, (M. ocellata).
c. The flesh of this bird, esp. the domestic turkey, as food.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 70. Christmas husbandlie fare … shred pies of the best,… and turkey well drest.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., St. Nicholas. The lay-brothers bring To the board a magnificent turkey and chine. The turkey and chine … are done to a nicely.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 122. Cold turkey and ham, or roast chicken. How I hate that turkey! It’s so vulgar too; almost as vulgar as goose.
d. U.S. and Canada. Allusively, in colloquial or dialect phrases, etc.
To say or talk turkey, to talk agreeably or affably, to say pleasant things; to talk turkey, to use high-flown language; hence absol. language of this character; not to say (pea-)turkey, to say nothing at all, ‘not to say a word’ (about something); to walk turkey, to strut or swagger; of a ship, to pitch and roll. (See Bartlett, Dict. Amer., and Thornton, American Glossary.)
1846. J. W. Abert, in Congress Documents, XXX. 502. The Indian replied, ‘You never once said turkey to me.’
1857. Adv. Capt. Suggs, 122 (Thornton). He won’t get a chance to say turkey to a good lookin gall to-day.
a. 1860. McClintock, Beedle’s Marriage (Bartlett). I was plaguy apt to talk turkey always when I got sociable, if it was only out of politeness.
1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 March (Farmer, Amer.). The north wind commenced to make the Yaquina walk turkey, standing her up on either end alternately.
1888. Washington, Critic (ibid.). ‘What … does locum tenens mean, Tim?’… ‘Why, that’s turkey for pro tem., of course.’
1909. Dialect Notes (U.S.), III. 356 (Thornton). She never said pea-turkey to me about it.
3. Applied with qualification to other birds: A local name of the Bustard; now usually applied to the Australian Bustard, also called Native, Plain, or Wild Turkey (Eupodotis (Otis) australis); in Australia also, the Brush- or Wattled Turkey and the Scrub-turkey: see these words; in America, Colorado or Water-turkey, names for native species of Ibis; Water-turkey, the Darter or Snake-bird (Plotus anhinga); in South Africa, the Bald Ibis (Gerontius calvus).
1847, 1852. Brush-turkey [see BRUSH sb.1 4].
1848. Native turkey [see NATIVE a. 13 c].
c. 1868. G. Pryme, in Autobiog. Recoll., xxvi. (1870), 386. I have seen Bustards,… which the natives called Wild Turkey,… flying over the Gogmagog Hills.
1872. C. H. Eden, Queensland, iv. 122. The plain turkey or bustard (Otis Australasianus),… the male weighing from eighteen to twenty-five pounds.
1872. Scrub-turkey [see SCRUB sb.1 6 c].
a. 1889. Ripley & Dana, Amer. Cycl., V. 692. This bird [Plotus anhinga] is a constant resident in Florida, and the lower parts of Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia…. In these localities it bears the various names of water crow, Grecian lady, water turkey, and cormorant.
† 4. Angling. Short for turkey-fly (see 6). Obs.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 301. The Turkey, or March-fly. Body, brown foal’s hair [etc.].
5. transf. in lumbering: see quots. U.S.
1893. Scribner’s Mag., June, 715/2. With his ‘time’ in his pocket and his ‘turkey,’ a two-bushel bag in which he carries his belongings, strung over his shoulder, the shanty boy starts … for town.
1905. Logging Terms (U. S. Dept. Agric., Forestry, Bulletin lxi.), Turkey, a bag containing a lumberjack’s outfit. To ‘histe the turkey’ is to take one’s personal belongings and leave camp.
6. attrib. and Comb., as turkey-butcher, -chick (also fig.), -coop, -drumstick in quot. attrib.), -feather, -gobbler, -hunt, -hunter, -pie, -poult, -shooter, -wing; turkey-like adj.; turkey-apple, local name of Cratægus induta, a small tree of Arkansas, bearing small reddish berries (Cent. Dict. Supp., 1909); turkey-back, a large variety of the yellowshank, Totanus melanoleucus; turkey-beard, also turkey’s beard, a North American herb, Xerophyllum asphodeloides, N.O. Liliaceæ, having a tuft of wiry root-leaves, and an erect stem with a raceme of white flowers; turkey-berry, (a) Solanum mammosum and S. torvum of the West Indies; (b) the fruit of a W. Indian tree, Cordia Collococca (turkey-berry tree); see also TURKEY1 3 c; turkey-bird, local name of the wryneck, and of the turnstone; turkey-blossom, W. Indian name of Tribulus cistoides; turkey-buzzard, an American carrion vulture, Cathartes aura, so called from its bare reddish head and neck and dark plumage; the John Crow of Jamaica; also fig.; in W. Africa, the Vulturine Pie, Picathartes gymnocephalus; turkey-call, the gobbling sound characteristic of the turkey-cock; also (b) an instrument for imitating this, used to decoy the wild turkey; turkey-corn, Dicentra (Dielytra) canadensis of eastern N. America, having yellow tubers like grains of maize; also called squirrel-corn; see also TURKEY1 3 c; turkey-dog, a dog trained to hunt the wild turkey; turkey-egg, the egg of the turkey; also (pl.) the common fritillary (local); turkey-fat ore, local name for a variety of smithsonite (carbonate of zinc) colored yellow by greenockite (Cent. Dict., 1891); turkey-feather fucus, laver, peacock’s-tail seaweed, Padina pavonia; turkey-flower = turkey-blossom; † turkey-fly, a kind of angler’s fly: cf. sense 4; turkey-foot [from the shape of the spike], local name for North American grasses of the genus Andropogon; turkey-gnat, a small black fly of the genus Simulium which infests poultry in southern and western N. America; turkey-grass, goose-grass or cleavers (Galium Aparine); turkey-louse, a feather-eating parasite, as Goniodes stylifer, infesting turkeys (Cent. Dict., and Supp.); turkey-merchant (slang): see quots.; cf. TURKEY1 3 a; turkey-oak, Quercus Catesbæi, of south-eastern N. America; also, the American Spanish oak, Q. falcata; turkey-pea (wild-turkey pea) = turkey-corn; also applied to the hoary pea, Tephrosia virginiana; turkey-pen (U.S.), a pen for trapping wild turkeys; turkey-shoot, a shooting-match in which the mark is a live turkey, or its head only; † turkey-tomb, a turkey-pie (humorous); turkey-trot, a kind of ball-room dance recently introduced from U.S.; turkey-vulture = turkey-buzzard; turkey-yelper, a decoy call: = turkey-call (b). See also TURKEY-COOK, -HEN.
1888. G. Trumbull, Names Birds, 168. At Salem, Mass., the larger birds of the species [Totanus melanoleucus] have long been distinguished from the others under the name of *Turkey-back.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., *Turkey’s beard, Xerophyllum asphodeloides. Ibid., *Turkey-berry, Solamuna mammosum and S. torvum.
1819. Pantologia, s.v. Cordia,… C. collococca,… of Jamaica … the clammy-cherry, or *turky-berry tree.
1858. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., 538. Turkey and other poultry feed on the fruit of C[ordia] collococca, called Turkey-berry Tree and … Clammy Cherry.
1885. Swainson, Provinc. Names Birds, 104. Wryneck (Jynx torquilla),… *Turkey bird. Because it erects and ruffles the feathers of its neck when disturbed.
1894. Scott Willcox, Egg Collector’s Handy Dict., Turkey-bird,… Turnstone, Strepsilas interpres.
1849. Craig, *Turkey-blossom, the name given in Jamaica to the plant Tribulus terrestris.
1849. D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1858), 165. There are *turkey butchers of whom you may buy the half or a quarter of a bird.
1672. Josselyn, New Eng. Rarities, 12. The *Turkie Buzzard, a kind of Kite, but as big as a Turkie, brown of colour, and very good meat.
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., iii. 68. The turkey-buzzard (Vultur aura) … is found wherever the country is moderately damp, from Cape Horn to North America.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 23. One of the chief features of Free Town are the jack crows…. Picathartes gymnocephalus. To the white people who live in daily contact with them they are turkey-buzzards; to the natives, Yubu.
1873. Forest & Stream, 2 Oct., 123/1. A *turkey-call is easily imitated by using the hollow bone of the leg or wing of the same.
1555. in Dugdale, Orig. Jurid., xlviii. (1666), 135. *Turky-Chicks 4. rated at iiijs a piece. 00. 16. 00.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. III. 150. Putting Knavish tricks Upon Green-Geese, and Turkey-Chicks.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxvii. The geese and *turkey-coops are divided off into apartments for four sows.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., *Turkey-corn, Corydalis formosa.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVII. 231/1. This setter … was an excellent *turkey dog.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Prof. Breakf.-t., ii. The *turkey-drumstick style of organization.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess of Mar, 10 March. A fine coloured emerald, as big as a *turkey-egg.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 30. We haue seene some vse mantels made of *Turky feathers.
1767. Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 407. It is well known by the name of *Turky-feather Fucus,… Fucus Pavonius.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Turkey feather laver, the common name of Padina pavonia.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 830/2. T[ribulus] cistoides … is abundant about Kingston in Jamaica, where it is called *turkey-flower…. Fowls are said to be fond of this plant.
1676. Cotton, Angler, II. vii. 63. The first flie we take notice of … is call’d the *Turky-flie.
1899. D. Sharp, in Cambr. Nat. Hist., VI. vii. 477. In North America the … *Turkey-gnats attack a variety of mammals and birds.
1879. J. Burroughs, Locusts & Wild Honey, 46. The *turkey-gobbler and the rooster.
1874. Edith Waddy, Year Wild Fl., 62. Goosegrass, *Turkey-grass, Cleavers,… names … familiar to all … for the Bedstraw.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, I. iii. 46. Dreaming of a *turkey hunt.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVII. 231/1. Nearly every negro man and boy on the plantation came up to have a look at the famous *turkey-hunter.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 67. Large *turkey-like bird, native of Mexico.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Turky-Merchants, drivers of Turkies.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Turkey merchant, a poulterer.
1717. Petiveriana, III. 206. *Turkey Oak. From a small Acorn it bears which the Wild Turkeys feed on.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., *Turkey-pea, Wild, Corydalis formosa.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., II. vi. 982. I inuited the hungry slaue … to the canuasing of a *Turkey Pye.
1694. *Turkey-poots [see TURKEY-COCK 3].
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 373. Ducklings, Turkey Poults, Plovers.
a. 1809. Anna Seward, Lett. (1811), I. 113. A Turkey-poot casting about with a pitiful poked-out neck, for its lost companion.
1849. D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855), 165. To eat turkey poults is a wasteful piece of luxury.
1869. T. W. Higginson, Army Life, 11. Some steady old *turkey-shooter hit the mark.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, IV. iv. Fat capons … And *turkey-tombs, such honourable monuments.
1912. Nation, 22 June, 427/1. The Lord’s prayer, followed by the ‘Turkey trot.’
1913. G. Grossmith, in Daily Graphic, 12 May, 9/1. Adventurous persons will see the Turkey trot or Tango as they are danced in a cabaret, but not as danced in a Paris ball-room.
1846. in Congress Documents, XLI. 405. Amongst the birds [we have] the *turkey vulture.
1908. Daily Chron., 18 Aug., 5/4. They are about the size of large barn-door fowls, with red heads (hence their name ‘turkey vultures’).
1888. Century Mag., XXXVI. 767/2. *Turkey-wing fans and fans of peacock feathers.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVII. 231/2. Matt drew from his pocket a *‘turkey-yelper’ and began to call.
