Re: Gallopavo (was: Re: fruitbats)

Quoting R A Brown <ray@...>:

> caeruleancentaur wrote:
> > --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@H...> wrote:
> >
> >>My dictionnary says it comes from "poule d'Inde", "India hen".
> >
> >>It is likely that it were called "poule d'Inde", as guinea pigs are
> >>still called "cochon d'Inde", "India pig", in french, before being
> >>shortened in "d'Inde" and re-spelled "dinde".
> >
> > In Italian the prickly pear cactus is called "fichi d'India," Indian
> > figs, even though they are a new world plant.
>
> Quite so - they are figs from 'India in the _west_' (i.e. the Americas).
> Remember what Columbus was looking for as he sailed the Atlantic and
> what, indeed, he thought he had reached.
>
> For the exact same reason the French turkey is "dinde' (<-- [poulet]
> d'Inde) and the guinea pig is a "cochon d'Inde" and the native
> pre-European inhabitants of the Americas, and their descendants, were
> commonly called _Indians_.
I've always found it rather infuriating that English use "Indian" both of the
Subcontinent and of the peoples of the Americas. Most other European languages
use different derivatives of "India", eg German _Inder_ "(subcontinental)
Indians", _Indianer_ "(American) Indians".

One of the English words should be changed to "Indish" or something.

                                             Andreas

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