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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word tuna

tuna1 prickly pear

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1526 Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias
Borrowed from
Taíno tuna
Ultimate origin
Taíno tuna

Pronunciation

  • /ˈtuna/, [ˈt̪u.na][1]

Forms

tuna f (plural tunas)[1]

Etymology

The word for the prickly pear is borrowed from Taíno tuna, a word of Hispaniola: both Oviedo and Las Casas state that it was native to that island.[2][3][4][5][1] Motolinía, writing in Mexico in 1536–1541, also says that tunal, and the name of its fruit, come from the Islands.[6] Lenz says the Spaniards came to know the fruit in Haiti and took the name to Mexico, where Molina's dictionary already has it.[7] Eguílaz derived the Andalusian name of a kind of fig from the Arabic word for “fig”, a view the later dictionaries do not follow.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's Sumario (Toledo, 1526) describes wild plants he had seen only in Hispaniola: llámanse tunas, y nasce de unos cardos muy espinosos, y echan esta fruta que llaman tunas “they are called tunas, and they grow from some very thorny thistles, and bear this fruit they call tunas”, which look like early figs.[9][2] Oviedo seems to use the word for both plant and fruit.[2]

Semantic evolution

Most chroniclers of the Indies used it for the fruit, and so it is used almost everywhere today; in Cuba tuna is the plant and the fruit is called tuno.[2] Covarrubias (1611) described it as a kind of Indian fig tree with broad, thick, spiny pads instead of branches.[10] Autoridades (1739) gave it for the fruit and the tree, and the Academy later defined it through nopal.[11][12] Corominas found it in general use in the Americas but little known in Spain, though it is used in the Canaries.[2] In Colombia it also means a thorn, and in Guatemala and Venezuela drunkenness.[13][14] In Venezuela it was also the name of a polished, pierced coloured stone that the indigenous peoples strung into necklaces.[15]

Timeline

  • 1526 – first record, in Oviedo's Sumario.[9][2][3]
  • 1532 – first record from Mexico.[16]
  • 1536–1541 – Motolinía calls it a name from the Islands.[6]
  • 1553 – Cieza de León describes two kinds of tunas in Peru.[6]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias describes the plant.[10]
  • 1739 – Autoridades enters it for the fruit and the tree.[11]
  • 1899 – the Academy gives its first etymology, “Voz caribe”.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The prickly pear cactus, nopal (Opuntia); also called higuera de tuna.[4][18][14][1]
  2. The edible fruit of this cactus, the higo de tuna or higo chumbo: En el mercado vendían tunas rojas y amarillas.[4][14][1]
  3. The fruit of the candelabro cactus.[4]
  4. (Colombia) A thorn or spine of a plant.[14][13]

Word family

  • tunal
  • tunera

tuna2 student music group

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1739 Diccionario de Autoridades
Borrowed from
French tune
Ultimate origin
French tune

Pronunciation

  • /ˈtuna/, [ˈt̪u.na][1]

Forms

tuna f (plural tunas)[1]

Etymology

The word for the student music group is borrowed from French tune (“beggars' hospice; alms”), a word of the old French underworld slang that properly meant “begging”.[2][19][20] Corominas and the DLE take the French word from the title ⟨Roi de Thunes⟩ “King of Tunis”, given to the chief of the French vagrants, which echoes the “Duke of Lower Egypt” whom the leader of the Gypsy bands called himself when they first reached Paris in 1427; ⟨Thunes⟩ was the Old French name of Tunis.[2][19][20][1] The DHLF finds this explanation unfounded and calls the French word obscure, and Pierre Guiraud preferred *tutina (“alms”), a hypothetical Gallo-Romance derivative, from tūtor (“to protect”).[21][22] The sense “student band” is a later, purely Spanish development of “idle, wandering life”.[2][19]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in Autoridades (1739), for an idle, free and wandering life.[2][19][11] Corominas found no literary record in the 17th century, but the derivative tunante in the Estebanillo González of 1646 shows that the word was already in use.[2]

Semantic evolution

Records of tuna and its derivatives become frequent only in the 19th century.[2] In 1846–1847 Domínguez already applied the “idle life” sense especially to students who went through the streets singing and playing to pay for their living or their fun.[23] Today the word names, above all in Spain, a group of university students in old-style dress with capes who play and sing popular songs, also called estudiantina.[24][20][1] The word also passed into Portuguese, where Bluteau recorded andar à tuna in 1721, and into Catalan, all as loans from French.[2]

Timeline

  • 1427 – the Gypsy bands reach Paris, whose leader's title inspired the French ⟨Roi de Thunes⟩.[2][19]
  • 1628 – the ⟨Roi de Thunes⟩ and French thune “alms” are recorded.[2][19][21]
  • 1646 – the derivative tunante in the Estebanillo González.[2][19]
  • 1739 – first record, in Autoridades, for an idle, wandering life.[11][19]
  • 1846–1847 – Domínguez applies it to students singing in the streets.[23]
  • 1884 – the Academy derives it from tunar, its first etymology for the word.[25]
  • 1917 – Alemany enters the phrase estudiante de la tuna.[26]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly Spain) A band of students who play and sing popular songs in traditional costume; an estudiantina.[20][24][1]
  2. A free, idle and vagabond life: Pasó la juventud de tuna en tuna.[20][18]

Word family

  • tunante
  • tunar
  • tuno
  • tunantería
  • tunear

Usage notes

The phrase correr la tuna means to lead an idle, wandering life.[20][18][25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 693
  3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tuna I
  4. ^ a b c d 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. tuna
  5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 703
  6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. tuna
  7. ^ Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. 1406
  8. ^ Eguílaz y Yanguas, Leopoldo de (1886), Glosario etimológico de las palabras españolas (castellanas, catalanas, gallegas, mallorquinas, portuguesas, valencianas y bascongadas) de origen oriental, Granada: La Lealtad, p. 533
  9. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. tuna
  10. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1356
  11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 375
  12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 723
  13. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 799
  14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. tuna
  15. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 229
  16. ^ 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. tuna
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 991
  18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tuna
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tuna II
  20. ^ 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. tuno
  21. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. thune
  22. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. tuna
  23. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1681
  24. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tuna
  25. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1058
  26. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1624

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tuna.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/tuna. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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