"Asia" or "Ottoman lands." The bird seems to have become known in England via Ottoman… See origin and meaning of turkey.
Meaning "inferior show, failure," is 1927 in show business slang, probably from the bird's reputation for stupidity. Meaning "stupid, ineffectual person" is recorded from 1951. Turkey shoot "something easy" is World War II-era, in reference to marksmanship contests where turkeys were tied ...
by, guess who, Turkish merchants. The Spanish in the New World discovered a bird (Meleagris gallopavo) that tasted like turkey, only better, and they exported it into Europe. Where it replaced that African bird. (In France it's call Dinde (D'Inde)! And in Turkey it's called Hindi.)...
though a date in the 1530s seems more likely. The wild turkey, the North American form of the bird, was so called from 1610s. By 1575,turkeywas becoming the usual main course at an English Christmas. Meaning "inferior show, fail...
Turkey isn’t the only country pointing fingers at India either. In French, Catalan and Italian, it is known asla dinde,gall d’indi, andpollo d’Indiarespectively, all claiming the bird originated in India. Hebrew also calls ittarnegol hodu, meaning “rooster of India,” while Russia call...
The wild turkey, the North American form of the bird, was so called from 1610s. The meaning "inferior show, failure," is attested from 1927 in show business slang (Vanity Fair), probably from the bird's reputation for stupidity. The meaning "stupid, ineffectual person" is recorded from...