Where do they get the term "Cold Turkey". As in quitting Cold Turkey?

Answer 1

To "go cold turkey," meaning to stop using an addictive drug suddenly and completely, usually incurring extremely unpleasant symptoms of withdrawal, is a phrase which dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. "Cold turkey" is actually based on another colloquial phrase, "to talk turkey" (sometimes "to talk cold turkey"), meaning to face unpleasant truths squarely. It's not entirely clear how turkeys came to be associated with honesty and straightforward confrontation of difficulties, but it may simply be that turkey farmers were renowned at one time for their lack of pretense and blunt speech.

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Let's talk turkey. Since "cold turkey" is normally used in the context of quitting an unhealthy habit, such as smoking, we had a hunch its origins had something to do with addiction.

Sure enough, a quick Yahoo! search on "cold turkey" + "origin" led us to an entry on IdiomSite. Here, we learned that the phrase describes the skin's reaction to heroin withdrawal. As an addict stops using the drug, blood is drawn toward the internal organs, thereby leaving the skin to resemble a cold, plucked turkey.

The popular Q&A site AllExperts dates the phrase back to 1910 and states that it originally meant "without preparation," referring to the ease of making a dish of cold turkey. In 1922, the expression acquired its darker connotation related to drug withdrawal.

Answer 2

"Cold turkey" is a slang expression describing the actions of a person who gives up a habit or addiction all at once, rather than gradually (easing the process through tapering off or using supplemental medication). This is, of course, the cheapest method of quitting any habit, and its supposed advantage is that by not actively using supplemental methods, the person avoids thinking about the habit and therefore, the temptation.

The term allegedly derives from the comparison of a cold turkey carcass and the state of a withdrawing addict — most notably, the cold sweats and goose bumps. It is often preceded by the verb "to go," as in "going cold turkey.