Hi, Monday, March 21, 2005, 3:30:29 PM, Graywolf wrote:
> I did not say the name of the bird was a corruption of turnkey. I > said the derogatory term was. Anyone who has read about English > prisons of the 1600-1700's can easily understand why it became so. > Despite popular opinion there is really no connection between the > bird (etiology as you described) and the insult (etiology as I > described) except that they are spelled and pronounced the same. I can't find any evidence for the derivation from 'turnkey'. The use of 'turkey' as an insult is apparently not recorded before the 1950s. The gap between common use of 'turnkey', and 'turkey' as an insult seems too wide to be feasible. In my opinion it's more likely to come from the theatrical use of 'turkey' meaning a show that has failed, which is dated only to the 1920s. That in turn probably derives from the bird's reputation for stupidity and clumsiness. Or, the insult may have strode right past the theatre, and have derived from 'turkey-cock', which was a word for a strutting, pompous, vain or gobbling blusterer. -- Cheers, Bob
