The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is symbolized by its traditional food, a large bird we call a turkey. But turkey is certainly not from the country Turkey (土耳其). In fact, there is one big mistake about its English name. Let's see what happened.
The word "Turkey" has meant "the country Turkey" since ancient times. The word "turkey" referring to (指的是) the bird first appeared in the English language in the mid-1500s. The misunderstanding over the word happened because of two similar-looking birds.
There is an African bird called the guinea fowl (珍珠鸡). It has dark feathers with white spots and a patch of brown on the back of its neck. Portuguese (葡萄牙的) businessmen brought the guinea fowl to Europe. The bird came to Europe through Turkey. So the European called the bird "turkey".
When Europeans came to North America, they saw a bird that looked like the guinea fowl. The bird was native to North America. But the Europeans thought that it was the guinea fowl, and so gave it the same name.
Hundreds of years later, we continue to call this North American bird "turkey". Actually, it has no connection at all with the country Turkey.
