While doing the dishes, my roommate sassed me for having not skyped all week (apparently I'm a skype-a-holic?) and said "Are you going ... well... I don't know what the English term for it is."
I asked "What is it in Danish?"
He said, "Going cold Turk."
To which I responded, without having listened fully, "Right! Going cold-turkey! It's exactly the same in English!"
"No no," he corrected me. "Going cold Turk. You guys say 'turkey', like the bird?"
"Yeah. Cold turkey. You say 'Turk' like a Turkish person? That's a little offensive, isn't it?"
And then I began to wonder...
What came first? The Turk or the turkey? The two aphorisms are far too similar to be purely coincidental.
I imagine that "back in the day" (which day?) a Danish man (Or a viking. Take your pick.) travelled to the US (because, of course, I'm oh-so Ameri-centric) and overheard the phrase "going cold turkey". He got the meaning right, but upon returning home, the first opportunity to use the term (perhaps, just to make this whole debacle even more anachronistic and geographically incorrect, we'll say that a friend of his was trying to quit the pipe after one too many Kubla Khan dreams during the Opium Wars. I know, I know, I'm so off-base! Shhhh just let it happen) he said "Man, what? Are you going cold..." and, at a loss for the correct term, he just cut it off at "Turk". "That sounds correct enough to me" he likely thought to himself, smugly. Soon enough, an entire country caught on.
But really, neither one makes sense. The Turks are responsible for the majority of heroin that enters Europe, making them unlikely candidates to be touted as poster-children for complete substance abstinence.
And turkey? I usually picture Thanksgiving, and I can't say I've ever been to a Thanksgiving devoid of booze.
My curiosity is now completely piqued. And I may spend the next few hours avoiding my work, thinking about the multitude of possible answers to this riddling question (I never gave much thought to that "chicken and the egg" business. I think this is much more fascinating.).
Someone find me a subscription to the OED, STAT!
On second thought, neither is really an aphorism, right? I don't know what truth can be found in "going cold turkey".
ReplyDeleteIt's just an idiom. And just like most idioms, it may never make a whole lot of sense to me.
I thought the whole point of idioms was that they can't make sense when they're interpreted literally. Kinda like an inside joke for the speaking "members" of a given language.
ReplyDeleteAnd as always, Wikipedia has the answer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_turkey
"Some believe the derivation is from the comparison of a cold turkey carcass and the state of a withdrawing addict — most notably, the cold sweats and goose bumps.[5"
ReplyDeleteI think that one's the most convincing.
But I'm still in the dark about "cold Turk". I'd almost rather let myself imagine the vast possibilities than wiki it...
I'll settle for reasoning that in Europe, they don't have chemically produced deli mystery meats labeled "turkey" and therefore would never experience the cold turkey "carcass" necessary to make such a comparison.
ReplyDeleteOR that it's the British way of saying things. You know how they love to butcher Americanglish.
"Related to the period after Christmas/Thanksgiving holidays where alcohol consumption rose - the end of the leftover cold turkey from the family dinners signaled the end of excessive alcohol intake." well shit, i thought excessive alcohol intake was appropriate all the time, not just when there was a turkey present.
ReplyDeleteThere is always a turkey sandwich somewhere within reach.
ReplyDelete... drink on, my littlest alcoholic!