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Topic: Turkey terms

Today's look at turkey terms begins with our trotting out something we've talked about before: talking turkey.

To talk turkey is to speak frankly or bluntly. Theories on the origin of that phrase range from an aggrieved Native American to chatty turkey hunters to straight-shooting turkey farmers. To put it bluntly, not one of those stories has yet to be substantiated, so let's turn from talking turkey to the chilly cold turkey.

The original cold turkey named "a statement with irrevocable finality"; "a procedure or unrelieved blunt matter-of-fact statement." This may (or may not) have its origin in the sense of turkey that means "business." But cold turkey has another sense too, naming the "abrupt complete cessation of the use of an addictive drug." That noun sense developed into the adverbial sense of cold turkey that is applied to an abrupt action that occurs "without preparation"; "without a period of gradual adjustment, adaptation, or withdrawal," or "all at once."

We'll make our final turkey transition as abruptly as possible: let's look at the Young Turks. Unlike the turkey bird that was mistakenly believed to have originated in the country of Turkey, the original Young Turks—student reformers seeking to reform the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the last century—truly did come from that country. Nowadays, young Turk names "a radical from anywhere, especially one who advocates changes within an established group."

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

Ben Frankline said the eagle was a "bird of notoriously poor character" and a foreigner as well

he wanted the turkey to be America's national bird and i agree

it is native and useful

and it would be hard to go to war under that emblem