http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=turkeyturkey (n.)1540s, "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), imported from Madagascar via Turkey, by Near East traders known as turkey merchants. The larger North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) was domesticated by the Aztecs, introduced to Spain by conquistadors (1523) and thence to wider Europe, by way of North Africa (then under Ottoman rule) and Turkey (Indian corn was originally turkey corn or turkey wheat in English for the same reason). The word turkey was first applied to it in English 1550s because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl. The Turkish name for it is hindi, lit. "Indian," probably via M.Fr. dinde (c.1600, contracted from poulet d'inde, lit. "chicken from India," Mod.Fr. dindon), based on the common misconception that the New World was eastern Asia.