Re: Gallopavo (was: Re: fruitbats)

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_.

--
Ray
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