atum

Forms

atum m (plural atuns)^[1] The oldest record has the plural atões.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic اَلتُّنّ (attúnn, “the tuna”), the noun with the Arabic article fused to it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Corriente finds no Arabic form with emphatic /ṭ/, which Machado had proposed as an alternative.^[6][4] The Arabic word came from Ancient Greek θύννος (thúnnos), through Latin thunnus according to Houaiss and Wiktionary, directly according to Corriente.^[2][1][5]

Nascentes explains the Arabic intermediary by the tuna fisheries of the southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula.^[7][2] Corominas argues the same for Spanish atún: only an Arabic source accounts for the initial a- and the loss of the Latin ending, and the tuna traps of the Atlantic coast of Andalusia make the route natural.^[8] Elsewhere the Latin word gave Italian tonno and, through Old Occitan ton, French thon.^[2][9] The Latin form without the article lives on in toninha, from Vulgar Latin *thunnīna.^[2][8]

Beekes calls the Greek word Mediterranean, possibly Pre-Greek, and notes that the comparison with Biblical Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannīn, “sea monster”) has been rejected.^[10] Wiktionary takes it from Phoenician.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado quotes a document of 1305 granting the right to catch tuna in return for a dizima e a septima parte dos atões e dos dolffinhos e das toninhas “a tenth and a seventh part of the tunas, the dolphins and the porpoises”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Folqman (1755) render the word with Latin thynnus;^[11][12] Folqman also has atum pequeno for a young tuna.^[11][12] Morais describes the fish and notes that it is caught in the almadravas, the fixed tuna traps.^[13] Modern dictionaries extend the name to all the large mackerel-like fishes of the genus Thunnus, and compounds name the species: atum-azul for the bluefin, atum-branco for the albacore.^[2][14] A dialect survey from Lagos in the Algarve recalls that the tuna once abounded there.^[15]

Timeline

• 1305 – atões in a document on tuna fishing.^[4][2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has atum, Latin thynnus.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman lists atum and atum pequeno.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais notes the fishing in the almadravas.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (ichthyology) tuna, any of the large marine fishes of the family Scombridae, mainly of the genus Thunnus, of great importance for fishing; especially the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus).^{[2][16][17][1]}
2. The flesh of these fish as food, fresh or canned.^[1][16]

Related words

• toninha
• Latin thunnus
• Spanish atún

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. atum
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. atum
4. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. atum
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 241
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. atum
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 408
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. thon
10. ^ 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, p. s.v. θύννος
11. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. atum
12. ^ a b c Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. atum
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 144
14. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. atum
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. atum
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. atum
17. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. atum