תֻּכִּי (Tuki) — parrot

Etymology

The word tuki (plural tukkiyyim) appears only once in the Bible, in a list of exotic goods brought to King Solomon from Tarshish: "once every three years the fleet of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks (tukkiyyim)" (1 Kings 10:22). In antiquity, its meaning was heavily debated. The Septuagint and Josephus offered various interpretations (including apes or even Ethiopians), while later Aramaic and Latin translations (Targum and Vulgate) identified the creatures as peacocks (tavvasin and pavos).

Modern linguists linked the Hebrew tukkiyyim to the Tamil word tukai, referring to the peacock's tail, suggesting the birds were imported from South India. This "peacock" identification remained the standard for centuries. During the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), Baruch Lindau’s 1788 encyclopedia Reshit Limmudim still used tuki to mean peacock, while referring to the parrot by its German/Yiddish name, papagaya.

The shift to "parrot" began with European biblical scholarship. In 1698, Pierre Daniel Huet argued that Tarshish was in Africa and that tuki derived from a root meaning "to hold," describing the parrot's ability to grip branches. This theory was later popularized by Alexander von Humboldt. In 1862, Isaac Rumsch published Khor Oni, a Hebrew translation of Robinson Crusoe, where he used tuki for the hero's talking bird. The book became a massive success, influencing a generation of Hebrew speakers—including Eliezer Ben-Yehuda—and cementing the word's modern meaning.

Key Quotes

"אַחַת לְשָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנִים תָּבוֹא אֳנִי תַרְשִׁישׁ נֹשְׂאֵת זָהָב וָכֶסֶף שֶׁנְהַבִּים וְקֹפִים וְתֻכִּיִּים" — מלכים א׳ י׳, כ״ב

Timeline

• 10th Century BCE: Tukkiyyim are listed as exotic imports in King Solomon's court.
• 1st Century CE: Josephus Flavius interprets the term as "Ethiopians" (slaves).
• Middle Ages: Rabbinic commentators (Targum Yonatan) standardize the "peacock" interpretation.
• 1698: Pierre Daniel Huet proposes that tuki refers to the African parrot.
• 1788: Baruch Lindau uses tuki for peacock in Reshit Limmudim.
• 1847: Alexander von Humboldt mentions the "parrot" theory in his work Cosmos.
• 1862: Isaac Rumsch uses tuki for "parrot" in his translation of Robinson Crusoe.
• Early 20th Century: Tuki (parrot) becomes the standard term in Modern Hebrew.

Related Words

• טַוָּס (Tavvas) — Peacock (derived from Greek taos).
• בַּבְּגָא (Babga) — An older name for parrot (from Arabic babgha).
• הֶבְנִי (Hevni) — A failed proposal for parrot by Mendele Mocher Sforim.
• זַרְזִיר (Zarzir) — A 1901 proposal for parrot by Itzhak Haim Tavyov.