atún

Forms

atún m (plural atunes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish atun, borrowed from Andalusian Arabic التن (attún, “tuna”), from Arabic تن (tunn).^[2][1][3] The Arabic word comes from Latin thunnus (“tuna”), which is from Ancient Greek θύννος (thúnnos).^[4][5][2] Corominas notes that even if the Arabic word is of European origin, the Spanish one must have come through Arabic: only that explains the a- of the article, the /u/ kept from Latin ŭ, and the loss of the final vowel.^[4] He links this to the importance of the tuna traps and the tuna fishery on the Atlantic coast of Andalusia.^[4] Portuguese atum has the same origin.^[4][3][6]

The Greek word is a Mediterranean one.^[7][8] Wiktionary takes it from Phoenician, comparing Biblical Hebrew תנין (tannīn, “sea monster”); the DHLF rejects the Hebrew comparison.^[1][7]

The purely Romance form was a derivative Vulgar Latin *thunnina, which gave Catalan tonyina and Old Spanish toñina (in Nola's cookery book of 1525, with Catalanisms), and tonina “dolphin; tuna”.^[4][5] Italian tonno and French thon continue the Latin word directly, French perhaps through Old Occitan ton.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in the port regulations of Seville of 1302, which deal with sacks of atun o de moxama “tuna or salt-dried tuna”.^[9] Corominas's first record is the Libro de buen amor of Juan Ruiz (1330), where the tuna fights like a fierce lion: Aý andava el atún como un bravo león.^[4][5][9]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts speak of it mostly as a fish caught in the almadrabas, the tuna traps of Andalusia: López de Ayala's chronicle tells how King Peter went by galley to watch the tuna fishing.^[9][10] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 already has many entries for young tunas and parts of the fish.^[11] Barrels of tuna are recorded in the Americas from 1513, in Puerto Rico.^[12] The figurative sense of an ignorant, rough man is colloquial.^[2][1] English tuna (1881) was taken from the Spanish of California, which had shortened the word.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 1302 – the port regulations of Seville.^[9]
• 1330 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor, Corominas's first record.^[4][5]
• c. 1400 – López de Ayala's chronicle describes tuna fishing in the almadrabas.^[9][10]
• 1423 – Enrique de Villena lists tunas among the fish in his Arte cisoria.^[9]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[12]
• 1881 – English borrows tuna from the Spanish of California.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary records the phrase por atún y a ver al duque.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. tuna, tunny: a large marine fish of the genus Thunnus, dark blue above and silvery below, whose flesh is eaten fresh or tinned: Para cenar hicimos una ensalada de atún.^[2][15][1]
2. (colloquial) An ignorant, coarse man.^[2][1]

Word family

• atunero
• atunara

Related words

• tonina
• Latin thunnus
• Portuguese atum
• English tuna

Usage notes

The colloquial and now rare phrase por atún y a ver al duque is said of someone who does something with two aims at once.^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. atún
3. ^ a b Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. atum
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 408
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. atún
6. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 1, 345
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. thon
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. atún
10. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 446
11. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. atún
12. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. atún
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 109
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. atún