Sunday Rest: turkey, Word Not To Use Today.

 Everyone has had enough of turkey by this time of year, and in Britain, where Christmas family get-togethers were cancelled long after the traditional huge turkey had been ordered and paid for, consuming it is in many households a task of of absolutely heroic proportions.

So...don't mention the turkey!

But, while we're here, why is turkey...well, a turkey? What I mean is, why is something bad, especially a bad play, a turkey?

There are a few possibilities. One is the habit of some impresarios of hiring a hall and a few out-of-work actors to put on a badly-rehearsed and no-copyright play at Thanksgiving in the USA, certain of a large Holiday audience. That gave people an association between turkey, the traditional Thanksgiving food, and bad plays.

There's also the story that the impresario Dion Boucicoult put on an unsuccessful show at Thanksgiving which he himself described as a turkey.

The other possibility is a sad reflection on the intelligence of the domesticated turkey, which is said to be so stupid that it has trouble even recognising its own food, and also has a habit of suffocating itself when panicked.

Mind you, this is a habit not unknown among people.

In any case, I hope your turkey is not a turkey. All turkeys aren't. Knocking down all the pins three times in a row at ten-pin bowling is called a turkey, perhaps from a turkey being offered as a prize for this feat of skill.

(And don't forget the freezer is your friend.)

Word Not To Use Today: turkey. This word started out as turkey cock, which described, obviously, the African guinea fowl. (They were imported to Europe through Turkey.) Describing the American bird as a turkey was a mistake.