"ASmith1946" > wrote in message
...
> >
> >Ah,, thank you Arri. I was thinking tuna, as in the fish and was
wondering
> >how that nickname had happened <grin>.
>
> This raises several interesting issues The first is linguistic. The
> Spanish/Mexican word "tuna" clearly meant the fruit of the cactus. The
word
> "atun" clearly meant the fish. The English word for tuna was "tunny," a
word
> that was used in the US until about 1900. How "tuna" came to mean the fish
is a
> mystery. It was likely a Californization of the Spanish/Mexican word. The
fist
> usage I can find dates to 1881. Then this spelling just replaced "tunny"
within
> a decade or so in the US. I understand that "tuna" is regularly used in
the UK
> as well now? If so, I assume it's due to the sale of canned tuna.

I have no linguistic background but I find it interesting that many people I
know refer to it as tunafish, never just tuna. It is tuna if you order it
rare at a fancy restaurant and tunafish if it is in a salad or snadwich
<grin>. Kind of like the pig/pork split that I believe dates back to the
Norman/Saxon days. (hope that's not an urban myth as I learned it in
Unversity eons ago).

Janet