“I didn’t find the Spiderman comic, but I did find this Zipi and Zape comic, which is no small feat.” “He won me a prize of 1,000 euros in the lottery, which is no small feat.” Surely we have heard and used the expression “not being a peacock” on countless occasions. It is a colloquial phrase that has been used for a long time to indicate that something has more value or importance than it seems at first glance. The meaning of the expression seems clear because it is generally used in the appropriate context, although we may not know what we are talking about when we talk about turkey booger. The origin of the phrase has even more intricacies.
It is one of the very numerous idioms that Spanish has, that is, we are faced with an expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the words that make it up. Therefore, a good starting point is to consult the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) to find out what turkey mucus is. We find two main meanings:
The truth is that the two definitions given by RAE academics support the main theories about the meaning of the expression “not being a peacock.”
The most widespread version of the origin of the expression “to be a turkey snot” has to do with the flaccid skin that the turkey has in its beak, although it is used figuratively. In the middle of the 16th century, pocket watches began to become somewhat more sophisticated, a luxury object and, therefore, a real attraction for lovers of foreign things. In the slang of thugs, the turkey is the victim of the robbery, so the image of the chain that was left hanging in his pocket after taking his watch in the robbery resembled the mucus of a turkey, something of little value.
In the Dictionary of sayings and phrases, by Alberto Buitrago, another possible origin is included: the plant known as turkey mucus. Basically, there are two plants that receive that nickname: the Celosia Argentea Cristata and the Amaranthus deflexus. The second of them looks similar to the weeds that emerge from the nooks of the sidewalks, forming spikes at the top that may be reminiscent of the fleshy appendage of the turkey due to their color. This is a plant that is the opposite of ornamental flowers, that is, without any commercial value.
In either of the two cases presented, being a fool is having something that has no value or relevance; So, if it’s not a big deal, it is, consequently, very important. Or, in the words of the RAE, not being (somewhat) mucus de peacock is a colloquial verbal phrase that means “to be important.”
Buitrago adds a third theory about the origin of the phrase, arguing that it comes directly from the appendix of the turkey, a piece of the bird that is not edible, that is, again without any commercial value.
For his part, popularizer Alfred López tries to throw the main theory overboard. In his blog, Now is the smart one who knows everything, he states that there are no documentary references that demonstrate that the origin of the phrase is in the stolen pocket watches.
López opens Volume IV of the Dictionary of Authorities of 1734 to point out the first reference of the expression, which appears in interrogative form: “Is it mucus de turkey? Jocose phrase, with which another is given to understand the estimation or entity of something , which he considers despicable. It is used regularly when asking: Latin: Ecquid nihil est rei?” He also recovers texts by Francisco Santos (Las tarascas de Madrid, 1665) and poems by Félix María Samaniego (The Garden of Venus, 1797) in which turkey mucus appears to indicate something flaccid in a figurative sense.