WordPlay

by Kevin Cox

This column presents adventures in etymology,
or the study of the origins of words and phrases.

November is different things to different people. For some, it means Thanksgiving and the approach of other holidays, for some it means football, and for others, it means election season.

Turkey

Turkey vs. turkey - I have been perplexed for years about why we have a turkey bird (which, by the way, was voted by Benjamin Franklin to be our national symbol! - fortunately, he was overruled by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—see www.startribune.com/stories/1453/3958560.html for more on this factoid), and a country called Turkey. Early 16th century English speakers called the bird turkey turkeycock or turkeyhen. Originally known as the guineafowl, and imported to Europe through Turkey, the word turkey gradually and erroneously was applied to the American bird. It seems the American turkey we eat at Thanksgiving dinner looks and tastes a lot like the guineafowl.

Calling someone a turkey - Calling someone a "turkey" refers to that person being a flop. This usage, probably due to the American turkey's low intelligence (they have been known to drown staring up into the sky when it's raining), came into vogue in early 20th century American theater. It eventually came to mean an inept or moronic person.

Holiday

The origins of holiday are simple enough—it is simply a different spelling and contraction of "holy day." Somehow, holiday came to mean any day marked by special occasion.

Pilgrim

Interestingly enough, the settlers arriving in the New World did not call themselves "pilgrims." Pilgrim was a term popularized by Daniel Webster, in a speech referring to "our pilgrim fathers" in 1820. Pilgrim comes from the Latin peregrinus, or foreign. One who was a foreigner was a peregrinatus, which in turn became the French peligrin, then Old English pilegrim, and finally the modern English pilgrim.

Harvest

carpere (to pluck) and the Greek word karpos (fruit)—so the meaning of harvest literally means "to pluck fruit!"

Feast

The word feast comes from Old French feste, which came from the Latin festus, meaning "joyous."

Sources

The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories

www.word-detective.com/back-j.html

Kevin Cox, Editor of The Willamette Galley, is a technical writer, composer, and musician, and has been a member of STC since 2000. He enjoys the outdoors, music, genealogy, and playing with words. He can be reached at knccomm@yahoo.com.