turkeyhen

plural turkeyhens

1. alternativeAlternative form of turkey hen.

   Turkeys moved fairly well with turkeyhens bringing 25@28c per pound, and toms 20@22c.

   1931 December 19, R. W. R., “Produce Market Review”, in Pennsylvania Farmer, volume 105, number 25, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Capper-Hapman-Slocum, Inc., page 18 (436), columns 3–4

   5 more examples

   It would be too great an undertaking to describe all the extraordinary birds that inhabit this country; but I cannot refrain from noticing that to which they give the name of gallinazo, from the resemblance it has to the turkeyhen. This bird is of the size of a peahen, but its head and neck are something larger.

   1831, Alexander Wilson, Charles Lucian Bonaparte, edited by Robert Jameson, American Ornithology; or The Natural History of the Birds of the United States, volume I, Edinburgh: […] Constable and Co. Edinburgh; and Hurst, Chance, and Co. London, page 14

   The Madison, 1843, edition, from which the following paragraph is taken, differs slightly from the later texts: […] I told the old woman more ’n twenty times that mother’s old turkeyhen was settin on fourteen eggs.

   1843, “William Tappan Thompson”, in Jay B[roadus] Hubbell, The South in American Literature, 1607-1900, [Durham, N.C.]: Duke University Press, published 1954, →LCCN, page 672

   The brood of the turkeyhen, and she with her halfspread wings, I see in them and myself the same old law.

   1855, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, N.Y., page 21

   Here and there among the great gathering could be seen odd couples of brave-appearing young gobblers and neat little turkeyhens who talked in quieter tones and spoke of the end which faced them on the morrow.

   1917 November 29, Ralph Jones, “Old-Time Turkeys Bemoan Expensive Fashions of Today: Materialistic Tendencies of Young Gobblers Bring Regret for More Idealistic Days of Yore”, in The Atlanta Constitution, volume L, number 167, Atlanta, Ga., page nine, column 4

   In the center is tribute, consisting of two blankets, perfumes, a copper axe, a basket of tamales, a stewed turkeyhen and a cup of chocolate.

   1990, Manuel Lucena Salmoral, America 1492: Portrait of a Continent 500 Years Ago, New York, N.Y.; Oxford, Oxon: Facts On File, →ISBN, page 153