What Does ‘Cold Turkey’ Mean? Plus the Meaning of 5 Other ‘Turkey’ Phrases

Thanksgiving is the U.S. holiday that many people jokingly call “Turkey Day.” That’s because most people celebrate the occasion by baking a turkey: the domesticated version of a member of the pheasant and grouse family native to the Americas. 

Why do we call this bird a “turkey?” It’s a case of mistaken identity. For centuries before Europeans came to North America, Turkish traders were importing African guinea fowl into Europe. The birds were known as “turkey-cocks.” 

When North American traders started to import our bird from the Americas into Europe, they were sometimes mistaken for turkey-cocks, and then they came to be known as “turkeys.” The name stuck.

So yes, the bird turkey is named after the country Turkey, even though they don’t actually come from Turkey.

To ‘talk turkey’ means to speak plainly

We also have a number of phrases and idioms that use the word “turkey.” 

First off, we have the expression “to talk turkey.” This means to speak plainly, or to get down to business. For example, if someone is hedging about whether they want to go out with you, you might say, “Let’s talk turkey. Do you like me or not?” When you talk turkey, you get right to the point. You tell the plain truth.

The origin is complicated, but it may have come from a story in the 1800s about a white man who tried keep all the turkeys for himself when he went hunting with a Native American, who was having none of it.

To ‘go cold turkey’ means to stop abruptly

Another expression is to “go cold turkey.” This means to stop something abruptly, without planning or pacing yourself. It originally referred to withdrawal from an addictive substance, like alcohol or drugs. But now it can refer to anything. 

You could say, “I stopped sleeping late cold turkey,” if you decided to wake up every day at 5:00 am—and started doing so the next day.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that Canadians first used the term in 1921, and  the citation doesn’t make it sound pleasant: 

Perhaps the most pitiful figures who have appeared before Dr. Carleton Simon...are those who voluntarily surrender themselves. When they go before him, they [sc. drug addicts] are given what is called the ‘cold turkey’ treatment.

When you look at how often the phrase is used in published books though, it...

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