Introduction

Turtledoves are not named after turtles, in fact "turtle" has meant the bird for longer than it meant the reptile.

In Middle English tortu meant "turtle" (from Latin tortuca) and turtel mean "turtledove" (from Latin turtur), then they collapsed into "turtle". The modern meaning of "turtle" won out, and made the meaning of the bird obsolete, leaving the elaborated form turteldoufe -> turtledove. (Compare the parallel German words Turtel and Turteltaube, which both still mean "turtle dove", but there also, the elaborated Turteltaube has mostly replaced the simple Turtel.)

The Old English word for "turtle" is byrdling, which has nothing to do with birds; it is in fact "board-ling" (that is, "shieldling").

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Northwest Semitic

Phoenician 𐤕𐤓𐤔𐤔 tršš
Hebrew תַּרְשִׁישׁ Taršīš
- Koine Greek Tharseis
  - Latin Tharsis
- English Tarshish
Classical Greek Ταρτησσός Tartēssós
- Latin Tartessos
  - English Tartessos
- Classical Greek Τάρτᾰρος Tártaros Tartarus ^[1]
  - Latin Tartarus Tartarus, Hell, a river in Venetia
    
    Western Romance
    
    French Tartare
    
    Italian Tartaro
    
    English Tartarus
  - Koine Greek ταρταροῦχος tartaroûkhos Holder of Tartaros, Keeper of Hell
    
    Medieval Latin tortuca turtle, tortoise ^[2]
    
    Western Romance
    
    Old French tortüe
    
    French tortue turtle, tortoise
    
    French le de la Tortue Tortuga, Island of the Turtle (place name)
    
    Middle English tortou
    
    English turtle
    
    Spanish tortuga turtle, tortoise
    
    Spanish Isla Tortuga Turtle Island (place name)
    
    English Tortuga
    
    Middle English tortuce
    
    English tortoise

Northwest Semitic *tār

Hebrew תּוֹר tōr turtle dove with Canaanite shift of *ā to ō
Ugaritic 𐎚𐎗 tr turtle dove
Latin turtur turtle dove ^[3]
- Vulgar Latin *turturã from the accusative, as normal
  - Eastern Romance
    
    Romanian turtură turtle dove (rare, regional)
  - Western Romance
    
    French tourte passenger pigeon (regional), dove (regional)
    
    Italian tortora turtle dove
- Welsh turtur turtle dove
- Finnish turturikyyhky turtle dove with kyyhky: "pigeon, dove"
- Vulgar Latin *turtulã variant with dissimulation
  - Western Romance
    
    Spanish tórtola turtle dove
  - Albanian turtull turtle dove
  - Old English turtle turtle dove
    
    Middle English turtle
    
    English turtle
    
    Middle English turtledouve
    
    English turtledove
  - Old High German turtil
    
    German Turtel turtle dove (dated)
    
    Old High German turtiltūba
    
    German Turteltaube turtle dove
- Latin turturella
  - Eastern Romance
    
    Romanian turturea turtle dove
  - Western Romance
    
    Old French turterele
    
    French tourterelle turtle dove
    
    Italian tortorella

Proto-Indo-European *teter- fowl, specific kind of fowl? probably onomatopoeic

Hellenic
- Classical Greek
- Classical Greek τέτρᾰξ tétrax hazel grouse
  - Translingual Tetrax taxonomic genus of little bustards
  - Classical Greek τετρᾰ́ζω tetrázō to cackle like a grouse ^[4]
- Classical Greek τέτρῐξ tétrix
  - Translingual Tetrix taxonomic genus of grouse locusts
- Classical Greek τετράων tetráōn black grouse
  - Latin tetrao
    
    Translingual Tetrao taxonomic genus of wood grouse
Indo-Iranian
- Indo-Aryan
  - Sanskrit तित्तिर tittirá partridge
    
    Magadhi
    
    Bengali তিতির titir partridge, guineafowl, francolin
    
    Pali 𑀢𑀺𑀢𑁆𑀢𑀺𑀭 tittira partridge
    
    Sauraseni 𑀢𑀺𑀢𑁆𑀢𑀺𑀭 tittira
    
    Hindi तीतर tītar partridge
Italic
- Latin turtur turtle dove ^[3]
Proto-Indo-European *tetr̥wós
- Balto-Slavic *teterwás grouse
  - East Baltic
    
    Lithuanian tetervà
  - West Baltic
    
    Old Prussian tatarwis black grouse
    
    Old Prussian medenixtatarwis partridge
  - Slavic *tȅtervь grouse, black grouse
    
    East Slavic тетеревь teterevĭ
    
    Russian те́терев téterev black grouse
    
    South Slavic
    
    Bulgarian те́трев tétrev black grouse
    
    Old Church Slavonic тетрѣвь tetrěvĭ
    
    Serbo-Croatian те̏трије̄б tȅtrijēb grouse
    
    West Slavic
    
    Czech tetřev grouse, capercaillie
    
    Polish cietrzew grouse, black grouse
    
    Polish zacietrzewić to become enraged lit. "to be-grouse-ish"
- Celtic *teteros
  - Old Irish
    
    Middle Irish tethra hooded crow
    
    Middle Irish Tethra name of a Fomorian king
- Germanic *þeduraz
  - North Germanic
    
    Old Norse þiðurr wood grouse, capercaillie
    
    Icelandic þiður capercaillie
    
    Swedish tjäder capercaillie
- Indo-Iranian *tatr̥wás
  - Iranian *tatr̥wáh pheasant
    
    Northern Iranian
    
    Khotani 𑀢𑁆𑀢𑀢𑀭 ttatara partridge
    
    Sogdian 𐫤𐫤𐫡𐫀𐫇 ttr'w a kind of bird
    
    Pashto تارو tārú partridge, francolin
    
    Western Iranian *tatura
    
    Northwestern Iranian
    
    Medean *tatura(s)
    
    Classical Greek τέτᾰρος tétaros
    
    Old Persian
    
    Persian تذرو tazarv pheasant
    
    Western Iranian *taturak
    
    Northwestern Iranian
    
    Old Armenian տատրակ tatrak turtle dove
    
    Armenian տատրակ tatrak turtle dove
    
    Old Persian
    
    Middle Persian *tadurug
    
    Arabic تَدْرُج tadruj pheasant
    
    Persian دراج dorrâj partridge, francolin
    
    Ottoman Turkish تراج turac black francolin
    
    Turkish turaç black francolin
    
    Georgian დურაჯი duraǯi black francolin
    
    Russian тура́ч turáč black francolin

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Collected English words

Footnotes

Classical Greek Τάρτᾰρος Tártaros: "Tartarus, Hades, Hell" was thought by Strabo to be a fanciful modification of Ταρτησσός Tartēssós, a semi-mythical port beyond the Pillars of Herakles (in southwest Iberia). I am unaware of any better ideas since then.

Ταρτησσός Tartēssós may in turn represent a Phoenician colony, possibly cognate with Phoenician 𐤕𐤓𐤔𐤔‎ tršš and Hebrew תַּרְשִׁישׁ Taršīš. In Ezekiel 27, Tarshish is said to have "exchanged silver, iron, tin and lead" for the merchandise of Tyre—which is pretty much what the Phoenicians were doing in southwest Iberia.

The ethnonym Tartar is a modification of Old Turkic 𐱃𐱃𐰺 Tatar by association with Tartarus, so the form Tatar is preferable, being more accurate and less judgmental. The naming of "steak tartare" is likewise based on Medieval European derogatory ideas of Tatars and other steppe cultures.

The Greek ταρταροῦχος tartaroûkhos: "keepers of Tartarus" is used in the apocrypha Apocalypse of Paul to refer to a class of demons who torture damned souls in hell, and one or two other early gnostic/hermetic sources.

Medieval Latin tortuca: "turtle, tortoise" is of unknown origin, but one possibility is that turtles got associated with these demons and it comes from tartaroûkhos, or a related form like (thērion) tartaroûkhon -> (bēstia) tartaruca -> tortuca. This could have been influenced by sound similarity to testūdō: "turtle, tortoise" (from testa: "pot, pottery, tile, shell", itself of disputed origin). The other likely possibility is that it could be from tortus: "twisted" due the shape of turtle's legs and feet.

I have seen several sources say that turtles were associated with the underworld in Late Hellenic/Early Christian symbolism but not any source that seems particularly definitive. While there definitely were some negative associations (turtles representing the burden of sin, etc.), I'm not yet sure someone didn't made up the association with the underworld at some point to justify connecting tortuca with tartaroûkhos.

Latin turtur could be related to all the *tetr- bird words; but it is the only one with an r in the first syllable, and one of the few that does not refer to a bird from the order Galliformes (landfowl).

It could also be an independent onomatopoeia, or it could be related to the Northwest Semitic words: Hebrew תּוֹר tōr and Ugaritic 𐎚𐎗 tr: "turtle dove".

Verb forms of the root *teter- probably don't exist. The two possibilities are Greek τετράζω (tetrázō) ‘cackle’ and Latin tetrinniō ‘quack’. Greek -azō verbs are usually later formations (not inherited from PIE) and Latin -inniō verbs are, as far as I know, all onomatopoeias: (ad)hinniō: "whinny", tinniō: "jingle, clink" (whence tinnitus), and tertinniō: quack" are basically the whole set. There is no particular evidence that any of the Latin inniō verbs are inherited from PIE, and no decent path derive tertinniō from *teter-. A -ne- infix verb form would be the closest thing, and there's a whole bunch of things wrong with that idea.

AidanEM

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