In the English language, the turkey gets kind of a tough break.

Talking turkey requires serious honesty and speaking harsh truths. Going cold turkey is, often, an onerous way of quitting something completely and suddenly. Being a turkey is a rude zinger thrown at movie and theatrical flops, as well as unpleasant, failure-prone people.

Yet, in the culinary world, the turkey looms large, particularly during November. This year, Americans are expected to eat about 30 million of them on Thanksgiving day, according to the National Turkey Federation . It's a fitting legacy for a bird that's been a fixture of holiday meals ever since it was first brought across the Atlantic to Europe by colonists.

But for all its cultural ubiquity, much of the turkey's early history is shrouded in uncertaint

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