Ask Mike: Cold Turkey
Hey Guys,
When a person suddenly quits a longstanding habit, he or she is said to have gone “cold turkey.” It could mean giving up cigarettes, trashy television, or, in the case of my young daughter, the pacifier. Here are three theories on how the expression may have come into existence.
According to The Phrase Finder, the term may have originated back in the early 20th century. Back then, people who were attempting to break a drug addiction and were suffering withdrawal symptoms were said to be going “cold turkey” because their skin was pale and bumpy, much like a de-feathered turkey’s.
I like that explanation, but it isn’t the definitive answer. More likely, according to several sites including WiseGeek and The Phrase Finder, is that the term came about because cold turkey is a simple, no-nonsense meal that requires no preparation. So, if someone were to quit a bad habit cold turkey, he or she would do so simply and without a lot of drama or fanfare.
There is one more possibility. The site Proverbium writes that historically, in the United States, there was often an end to “excessive alcohol consumption at the end of the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season.” Of course, this time of year is also when cold turkey leftovers are plentiful. “Hence, this memory association led people to use this expression when describing their sudden withdrawal from a certain habit.”
Got your own theory regarding “cold turkey”? Go ahead and leave a comment below.
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nice article. all 3 are plausible
Heroin withdrawals have coined a few expressions, “cold turkey” being one of them.
Not just drugs in general, but specifically heroin withdrawals give you hot flashes/cold sweats. So, one minute you’re burning up, sweating, and the next you’re freezing. Being soaking wet makes it worse, and now you feel like a cold turkey-you’re slimy, have the bumps, and though you may not feel cold to others, you are freezing- so you think you’re cold regardless.
I believe that if you Wiki “Heroin,” it will tell you that the expression originated from heroin withdrawals. I’m not sure just how old the expression is, buy I’ve seen it in literature, referring to heroin in classics, and pretty much everything I’ve ever read claims the same.
I am guessing when somebody forgot to cook the turkey on Thanksgiving and they all couldn’t take it!
it means to quit right away
cold turkey comes from the goose-bumps on your skin when withdrawing from heroin, the bumps looking like a turkey skin.
The first theory is the simplest and the best. The second is contrived and forced. The third is just ridiculous and stupid.
Maybe the phrase come from the fact that a dead turkey is colder than a live turkey. Therefore if you go ‘cold turkey’ you do it (whatever ‘it’ may be) no longer, because a turkey can no longer do anything when it’s cold because it is dead. I hope I explained that right. I felt like I was chasing my tail.
When I quit smoking, which I did “cold turkey,” I was often asked how I did it and found myself puzzled by this expression each time I used it. The first explanation is the one that seems most plausible to me.
As someone interested in linguistic issues, I’ve also wondered whether it comes from some expression (perhaps even in a foreign language) that was somehow misunderstood and rendered as “cold turkey”.
Cold Turkey came from putting turkey in a freezer
put a turkey in a freezer
and very cold turkey
ha ha ha
it doesn’t matter where your from if youve ever quit anything addictive even sex you don’t anyone to tell you what cold turkey means,right?
a sudden withdrawing from an abused substance is very harmful compared to a gradual discontinuation.
the former induces symptoms similar to being a cold turkey during sleep or night time:
cold body/shivering/goose bumps/and eyes wide open.
although the goose bumps in some cases, persist also during the day time.
going cold turkey sucks and is also dangerous/harmful.
cheers,
Doesn’t it come from taking a turkey out from the oven cold like as if you didn’t leave it in long enough like someone stopping smoking suddenly and not have had long enough to break the addiction.
The origin of “cold turkey” is not entirely certain, but the phrase seems to have evolved from the older (19th century) classic American idiom “to talk turkey,” meaning “to speak directly and frankly, without beating around the bush.” There are a number of stories about the origin of “talk turkey,” many of which involve Pilgrims and Indians, and all of which strike me as deeply implausible. But, more importantly for our purposes, an early form of the phrase was “to talk cold turkey,” most likely using “cold turkey,” a simple, uncomplicated meal, as a metaphor for simple, unadorned, direct speech. With “talk cold turkey” already a popular idiom meaning “give it to me straight; tell me the unvarnished truth,” it seems natural that “cold turkey” came to mean “quit suddenly, with no tapering off or equivocation.”
http://www.word-detective.com/2008/11/cold-turkey/
Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_turkey
Cold trukey, i am not sure when the saying started. We can be sure that when the pilgirms came to plymath rock, some of the passengers might have found the taste of cold turkey quite satisfying.
I would also venture to guess that some of the people who want to know how the saying of cold turkey came about, might think that the turkey when caugt, was just eaten as is. Those people who might think that or say that are a little loose upstares. You would just have to believe those people who think that might be one of the saying are usually lossers.
most likey the answer is, when a turkey is cooked properly, the meat that is near the bone might be just a tiney bit pink, and the rest of the turkey is very juicey in a pretty white with maybe a very small trace of red, which is the juice of the turkey.
Ummmmm very tastey. When the left overs are place in the fridge, the taste of the turkey changes, espescially the dark meat.
So, the moral of the storu is, when a turkey is cooked properrly, and then slice up and put in the fridge, the taste of the turkey changes.
Since almost 99% of people do not like cold turkey, the saying means, since it is difficult ot eat cold turkey cause of the taste, anytime someone says some one else is going cold turkey, they mean the task at hand is very difficult to complete.
the only people who like cold turkey are those who cook their own turkey, and then when it is eaten after being in the fridge. I find the taste ok, and i also make sure that i hae other items on my plate that i enjoy.
It means it will be a cold day in Turkey
It means all of that. And if your the one who has to come down that way it really means a lot. Most of all when you have to break through a wall as solid as the one you have to overcome in that state. Not an easy thing to do but certainly a challenging one. If you climb that mountain sooner or later your going to have to come back down it. Doing it alone with no help is as cold a turkey as any when it comes to heroin. And that is what you have to do if you want to come down from that mountain. Or wait and hope for help where they have to go and get you and bring you back down step by step. I don’t know which is harder to do. But when I decided to come back down from up on that mountain I saw no reason to stall it and had to do so “cold turkey” because it was the fastest and best way to end a nightmare.
wow just great!
Its also an idiom right?
I had always heard that it comes from trying to quit smoking. Folks trying to quit frequently find themselves with an increased appetite. Since one may want a quick meal to combat a craving, a cold turkey sandwich was a sterotypical option. This phrase arose in the early 20th century before microwaves or other easy and quick meals. “Cold turkey’ was different than someone who may gradually have reduced their nicotine until they eventually quit. ‘Cold Turkey’ meant you were going to stop abruptly and rely on no more than refrigerated poultry to cope with withdrawl.
I’ve always been under the impression that it refers to the leftover turkey after christmas or thanksgiving, in that for days and weeks afterwards, it’s all that you get – turkey sandwiches, salads, curries, etc. etc. It begins quickly, but just goes on and on and on…
Many of the other explanations seem equally likely, or more so, in fact.
1 and 2 –not liked
3rd option looks true and realistic..
I thought “cold turkey” is use for someone who turn as pale and cold as a turkey- like a ghost. But can “cold turkey” be use for someone who is or turns cold towards you?
I don’t know where you learned to research, but it wasn’t at any of my schools.
To define a phrase, find the first usage, then define it in the terms of the day. Anything else is speculation, or worse, an attempt to change that original definition.
Since it seems that most of Yahoo now resides in the UK (Answers, anyway) I’ll use a UK reference.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cold-turkey.html