The word "turkey" is a funny one. Not only does it mean a type of bird, but it is also a country. And in that country, the word translates oddly. In Turkey, the word for the bird "turkey" is "hindi." This also means "India."
In India, the word for turkey is "peru." Another country! The word for turkey is also "peru" in Portuguese. These different translations come from confusion about the origin of the bird. Most countries believed that the turkey came from India, but this is not true.
The word for turkey in Chinese is the same as "fire chicken." And in Japanese it means "seven-faced bird." In Macedonia, Turkey is named for the Turkish word for "Egypt." While the three romance languages, Spanish, Italian, and French all have completely different words for it—tavo, tacchino, and dinde.
