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tuna

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Etymology and origin of the English word tuna

Pronunciation

  • /ˈtjuː.nə/, /ˈtʃuː.nə/[1]

tuna1 prickly pear

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1555 R. Eden, translation of Peter Martyr
Borrowed from
Spanish tuna
Ultimate origin
Taíno

Etymology

The prickly pear is borrowed from Spanish tuna, from Taíno.[2][3][4][5][6] The OED cites Humboldt for the view that the Spanish took it from the language of Haiti.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prickly pear, especially the tall Opuntia tuna of Central America and the West Indies: 1555, in R. Eden's translation of Peter Martyr's Decades.[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The name of the cactus is also used for its edible fruit.[2][3][5]

Timeline

  • 1555 – a prickly pear cactus.[7][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tropical American prickly pear cactus of the genus Opuntia.[2][5][3]
  2. The edible fruit of this cactus.[2][5][3]

tuna2 fish

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1881 Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum
Borrowed from
Spanish tuna
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek θύννος

Etymology

The fish is borrowed from Spanish tuna, a word of the Spanish of the Americas (Etymonline says California),[4][2][8][9] an alteration of atún (“tunny”),[4][2][1] from Arabic التُّنّ (at-tunn, “the tuna”),[1][4][2] from Latin thunnus (“tunny”),[4][8][9][1] from Ancient Greek θύννος (thúnnos).[1][5][10] The OED and the Shorter Oxford call the connection with the Latin word only a possibility.[7][3] Barnhart remarks that the Arabic word seems to have replaced, during the Arab occupation of southern Spain, an older Spanish word inherited from Latin, of the kind that survives in tonno and thon.[9] The same Latin word is the source of English tunny.[4][9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large marine food and game fish of the mackerel family: 1881, in the Proceedings of the United States National Museum.[7][9][2]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart labels the word American English.[9] Collins notes that tunny is the older name for the same fish,[5] and the word also came to mean the flesh of the fish as food, especially tinned, also called tuna fish.[2][5]

Timeline

Meanings

Noun

  1. A large fast-swimming sea fish of the mackerel family, of the genus Thunnus and related genera, valued for food and sport; a tunny.[5][2][7]
  2. The flesh of this fish as food, often canned; also called tuna fish: a tuna sandwich.[2][5]
  • tunny

Usage notes

In New Zealand English tuna is also the name of two freshwater eels, a borrowing from Māori.[7][3][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tuna.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tuna. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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