Duolingo bird plus#

Ethiopia: Arabic ديك الحبش (deek al7abash).Peru: Portuguese peru, Hindi पेरू (peroo).India: French dinde (from de and Inde), Catalan indiot or gall dindi, Polish indyk, Turkish hindi.Turkey: English turkey, Hindi टर्की (tarkee).In fact, around the world, people have given country-based names to this animal, including names inspired by India, Peru, and even Rome!

It's true that the name of the bird is based on the name of the country Turkey… but it's not true that the bird comes from Turkey!

Duolingo bird plus#

To round out your plateful of etymologies, Brussels sprouts were popularized by their fans (and farmers) in Belgium hundreds of years ago, squash comes from Narragansett (an indigenous language of New England) and so does succotash (not a traditional Thanksgiving side, but it has the same Narragansett -ash suffix!), and cranberrywas repurposed in North America from the German or Dutch kraanbere ('crane' like the bird, plus 'berry')-a different swamp-raised berry! Carve out some space for turkeyīefore the tryptophan sets in, you'll want to share this one with the table: Turkeyreally does come from the name of the country! May we instead suggest that you focus on the origin of yam, which comes from a West African language that was then adopted by the Spanish and Portuguese before making its way to English! And marshmallow’s origins are quite literal: It's from a kind of mallow (a plant) that grows in marshes, and whose roots were used to make everyone's favorite yam (sweet potato?) topping in centuries past.įor your non-tuber vegetable sides, you can't beat a casserole, which is actually the name of the dish it's prepared in! The French word comes from the Provençal word cassa for a type of pan, and so this side has something in common with North African tagines-also named for the receptacle it's made in. Soon potato was being used in English for the sweet vegetable, and by the end of the 1500s, it was also applied to the non-sweet varieties from Peru (which are only distantly related to the sweet potato).Īnd while we're on the topic of sweet potatoes, we must discuss yamsand marshmallows! In reality, yams are not related to sweet potatoes-but for those having Thanksgiving in North America, we recommend steering clear of this divisive debate. They adopted the word patata from the original word batata, which came from one of the Carib languages spoken in Haiti (or possibly another island).

We're starting with everyone's favorite… the potatoes! And in a controversial move, we're putting sweet potatoes here in the sides section, and not with desserts-for word origin reasons only! Sweet potatoes were the original potato, or at least, they are the first potato-y vegetable encountered by the Spaniards when they arrived in the Caribbean in the 16th century. This holiday, delight and distract your guests, the host, and your cousins' kids with everyone's favorite conversation starter: word origins! Here are the surprising language stories behind your favorite Thanksgiving foods.