Quiz: "turkey" or "crow"?

The correct answer is: turkey

"Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Now, let’s talk turkey about the state of the family business."

If you “talk turkey”, you discuss something in a frank and open way. You discuss the facts.

talk turkey = Fraktur reden
turkey = Truthahn

Thanksgiving is a yearly holiday in the US that commemorates a harvest feast held in 1621 by the Pilgrims and Native Americans. In the US, it’s on the fourth Thursday in November. In Canada, there is a similar holiday. It’s on the second Monday in October — but has nothing to do with Pilgrims, although turkey does play a role.

Some say that the expression “talk turkey” may have originated from the Thanksgiving tradition of sitting round a table, talking and eating turkey. In the past, “talk turkey” probably meant “to speak about pleasant things”. Today, it no longer has this meaning.

According to World Wide Words, the expression may have originated from the time when the early settlers met Native Americans, often to trade wild turkeys. The native people were said to have asked, “You come to talk turkey?” whenever they met a settler.

If you “eat crow”, you are humiliated because you have to admit that you did something wrong.

eat crow = zu Kreuze kriechen
crow = Krähe

Try another

"The G20 plan for global financial reform will only work if the new US administration plays ___."

• havoc
  
• ball