Cold turkey

This American expression from the early 20th century was first used within the context of alcohol and drug rehabilitation, when going cold turkey was a no nonsense, straight withdrawal from addictive substances without a weaning-off process. Some maintain that cold turkey is an allusion to the skin of addicts in rehab, skin that resembles the puckered-up skin of a plucked turkey, but this seems doubtful. Most etymologists claim a connection to the classic American idiom talk turkey, which is straight, no nonsense talking. Indeed, some claim that a variation of talk turkey, back in the 19th century, was to talk cold turkey, which has connotations of a plain, no nonsense meal of leftovers after Thanksgiving, but no citations for this have been found to date. Since the early 20th century, however, and after the introduction of the expression cold turkey, there have been numerous citations for talking cold turkey about sex and a variety of other sensitive issues. In this context, cold turkey means plain truth. This modern usage seems to cement the etymological link to talking turkey. See also talk turkey.