The first interesting thing is how many languages have terms
that are based on the misconception that the turkey originated
in India (hence dinde). The Turks call turkey "hindi."
Scandinavian names associate the bird with the town of Calicut
on India's Malabar coast. Could this all be related to the
original misconception that the new world was "the Indies"? In
Mandarin Chinese the word is "huo ji," or fire chicken. In
Japanese it's "shichimencho," or seven-faced bird! As for the
word "turkey" itself, there's the following: "Two English
dictionaries which I have consulted give similar etymologies for
'turkey'. The story goes like this. The African bird now called
the 'guinea fowl' used to be called (presumably because of a
mistaken belief about its origin) the 'Turkey cock', it's having
arrived in Europe via Turkish territory. The bird now called
'turkey' in English was originally thought to be identical with
(or a sort of) the bird now called the 'guinea fowl' and that
being then called the 'Turkey cock' the