Where did the expression "cold turkey" come from when used by an addict to stop using without tapering off? Country or bird?
Aparently its the bird... In a very old British comic strip the man cut his wife out of his will for serving him cold turkey time and time again... I hoped to find a good explanation on etymology online but had to wiki it. The phrase seems to have stuck through just spoken word as the comic never mentioned " quitting cold turkey", and the first usage of the phrase in print was about a poker player being tossed out "cold turkey" in an early 1900's story. Etymology online had some anecdote about how cold turkey was easy and quick to prepare, thus it was "quitting quickly" , but I suspect the particular wikipedia researcher has the correct origin of this absolutely curious phrase.
