Time for a light post as America celebrates Thanksgiving weekend. On the menu, a roasted Meleagris gallopavo domesticus, a fowl native to Mexico and southern USA. But why, oh why, is this bird called “turkey” in English, “peru” in Portuguese, and “of india” in many other languages (“dinde” in French, “indyushka” in Russian, and “hindi” in – hold your hats – Turkish)? How geographically confused can we be? Do names of plants and animals reflect histories of migration and movement, or mistaken identities, or accidental out-of-context snapshots?
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Christian Kull 