Bibliotheca Polyglotta

The words for ‘tuna (zool.)’ (tunn) and ‘dragon’ (tinnīn) may both go back, ultimately, to Hbr ↗tannīn ‘sea monster, big fish’, while
tannīn, for ‘tannin, tannic acid’, is clearly from a European lang (Engl, Fr).

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Follow references given in section CONCISE above.

▪ Follow references given in section CONC above.

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tunn تُنّ

√TNː (TNN)

tuna (zool.) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ According to etymonline.com, Ar tunn (on which Engl tuna seems to be based) is a borrowing, probably made in Spain, from Lat thynnus, thunnus ‘tuna, tunny’, which is from Grk thýnnos ‘id.’, possibly with a literal sense of ‘darter’, from thýnein ‘to dart along’. For a possible relation between the Grk etymon and Ar tinnīn ‘dragon’, see ↗tinnīn.
▪ Rolland2014 summarizes: perhaps from Grk thýnnos ‘id.’, unless it is the other way round or both stem from the “Mediterranean word” mentioned by Chantraine1977.

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See section CONCISE, above.

▪ Ar tunn, with def.art. al-tunn /at-tunn/, gave Span atun and, via Amer(Calif.)Span tuna, entered Engl as tuna by 1881. In contrast, Engl tunny (1520 s) ‘large sea-fish of the mackerel order’, seems to have taken another way where Ar was not involved: probably from mFr thon (C14), from oProv ton and directly from Lat thynnus, thunnus ‘tuna, tunny’, from Grk thýnnos ‘id.’ – EtymOnline. Grk thýnnos, however, may have a Sem background, cf. Ar ↗tinnīn ‘dragon’.

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tinnīn تِنِّين , pl. tanānīnᵘ

√TNː (TNN)

1 dragon, sea monster. – 2 Draco (astron.). – 3 waterspout (meteor.) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ Kogan2011: [from Hbr/Aram?, ultimately from] protWSem *t˅n˅n‑ ‘mythical snake (dragon)’.
▪ As a loan word most probably directly taken from Aram tannīnā. The latter may, however, be older, cf. the Ug and Hbr cognates. Alongside with the Can ancestors, there are also words in EthSem with similar semantic values, but with the root TMN rather than a reduplicated TNː (TNN). For the Sem period, Sem *tannīn‑ (part. redupl.) ‘big serpent, crocodile’ or Sem *t˅nn˅n‑ ‘(mythical) snake, dragon’ and (based on the EthSem forms) *taman‑ ‘snake, dragon’ have been suggested. Taken together with what some scholars think are parallels in Eg, WCh and CCh languages, AfrAs *tan‑ ‘snake, worm’ and AfrAs *tam(-an)‑ ‘fish’ have been suggested as long-term etymologies for the two strings.
▪ Ar tinnīn may be related to Engl tunny and tuna and corresponding words in other Eur langs (Fr thon, It tonno, G Thun fisch, etc.).

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▪ BDB1906: Hbr tannîn (erroneously also tannîm), Ar tannīn, Aram tannînâ, Syr tunnînâ, Gz taman.
▪ Klein1987: Ug tnn, Hbr tannîn ‘1 sea monster; 2 serpent; 3 dragon; 4 nHbr crocodile’, EgAram tnyn, JudAram Syr tannînâ, Gz taman, Ar tinnīn ‘dragon’.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#2367: Hbr tannīn, Ar tinnīn. – Outside Sem: (WCh) Hs tānā ‘earth worm’.
▪ Militarev2006#179: Ug tnn /*tunnanu/ ‘dragon (kind of monster accompanying the sea- god Ym) ’, Hbr tannîn ‘sea-monster, sea-dragon; serpent; crocodile’, OffAram tnyn ‘dragon’, JudAram tannīnā ‘sea-monster, crocodile; large snake’, Syr tannīnā ‘sea-monster, dragon, serpent’, nSyr tanînâ ‘dragon’, Mand tanina (also tiniana, tinita) ‘dragon’, Ar tinnīn‑ ‘serpent de grandeur énorme; dragon’. – NB: Eth forms with ‑m‑ instead of ‑n‑ may be related: Gz taman ‘snake, dragon’, Tña Amh tämän ‘snake’. For these, cf. Militarev2006#2686: (Sem) Gz taman, Te Amh tämän; outside Sem: oEg tm.t (med) ‘kind of fish’; (CCh) tamwi, tum, túm, tumi, túmí, tǝǝmǝ ‘to fish; fish; (group) fishing’ in several langs. (Cf. also next paragraph.)
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#2279: (Sem) Gz taman,Tña Amh tämän ‘snake, dragon’; (ECush) Saho timbakiyā ‘worm’.

▪ BDB1906 is the first, after Fraenkel1886, to repeat that Ar tannīn is borrowed from Aram tannīnā.
▪ Tropper2008 says Ug tnn and its cognate Hbr tannîn are the origin of the corresponding words in other WSem langs.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#2367 reconstruct Sem *tannīn‑ ‘big serpent, crocodile’ and WCh *tan‑ ‘earth worm’, both from AfrAs *tan‑ ‘snake, worm’. The second half of Sem *tannīn‑ would thus be the result of partial reduplication.
▪ Militarev2006#179 repeats that Ar tinnīn is »almost certainly borrowed from Aram«. Based on the Can (and Ar) evidence, the author reconstructs Sem [Can] *t˅nn˅n‑ ‘(mythical) snake, dragon’. No AfrAs dimension mentioned.
▪ On account of the EthSem evidence (Gz, Tña, Amh), Militarev2006#2686 reconstructs Sem *taman‑ ‘snake, dragon’. Together with oEg tm.t ‘kind of fish’ and CCh *ta/um‑ ‘to fish; fish; (group) fishing’, these forms may go back to AfrAs *tam(-an)‑ ‘fish’. – NB: (Reflexes of) this root may form the second component of Cush composites for ‘fish’: LEC *ḳur-tum‑ (Or qurtummi, Gdl kurtum-et) and HEC *ḳir-tum‑ /*ḳur-tum‑ (Sid ḳiltiʔmi, Dar ḳultuʔme, Had ḳurṭume, Ala ḳurč̣um-et, Bmb ḳur-ṭume, Kmb ḳurtum). Cf. also Sem. *t˅nn˅n‑ ‘(mythical) snake, dragon’.

▪ Klein1987 thinks that Grk thýnnos ‘tunny’ probably is from Hbr tannîn (though influenced by Grk thýnein ‘to shake’). If this is true, Eur words for ‘tuna, tunny’ ultimately go back to the same source as Ar tinnīn. Other sources, however, are more reluctant, or refuse, to accept such an etymology. Kluge2002, e.g., formulates rather vaguely (s.v. Thunfisch): Grk thýnnos is »a Mediterranean word« that is »probably from a Sem lang«. EtymOnline thinks that Engl tunny (1520 s) ‘large sea-fish of the mackerel order’ is probably from mFr thon (C14), from oProv ton and directly from Lat thynnus, thunnus ‘tuna, tunny’, which is from Grk thýnnos ‘id.’, »possibly with a literal sense of ‘darter’, from thýnein ‘to dart along’«; no Sem dimension suggested (so also Littmann, Lokotsch, EtymDud, Nişanyan). And DeCaprona2013 explicitly denies that Grk thýnnos, though from a Mediterranean lang, is from Hbr tannîn, but does not explain his opinion.
▪ On a completely other line, Dolgopolsky2012#2279, puts (reconstructed) EthSem *taman‑ together with (reconstructed) narrowIE *dem(-el)‑ ‘worm’ (Alb dhemjë ‘caterpillar, maggot’, dhemizë, dhëmizë, dhimizë, dhemizë, dhemë ‘id.; blowfly’, and other words for ‘leeches’) and reconstructs Nostr *t˅m˅ ‘worm, snake’.

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tannīn تَنِّين

√TNː (TNN)

tannin, tannic acid – WehrCowan1979.

Rolland2014: From Fr tanin, derived from tan, with high probability from a Celtic *tanno‑ ‘oak’.

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▪ Cf. also the etymology of Engl tannin ‘tannic acid, vegetable substance capable of converting animal hide to leather’, as given in etymonline.com : 1802, from Fr tannin (1798), from tan ‘crushed oak bark containing tannin’, probably from a Celtic source (such as Breton tann ‘oak tree’). The Engl vb. to tan can be traced back, via late oEngl tannian ‘to convert hide into leather (by steeping it in tannin)’, to mLat tannare ‘to tan, dye a tawny colour’ (c900), from Lat tannum ‘crushed oak bark (used in tanning leather)’. The meaning ‘to make brown by exposure to the sun’ (as tanning does to hides) first recorded 1520 s; intransitive sense also from 1520 s. Of persons, not considered an attractive feature until 20c.; in Shakespeare, ‘to deprive of the freshness and beauty of youth’ (Sonnet CXV). As an adj. from 1620 s. Related: G Tanne ‘fir tree’ (as in Tannenbaum) might be a transferred meaning from the same Celtic source.¹

1. Cf., however, Kluge2002: C9, mHG tanne, oHG tanna, oSax danna, dennja, »Vielleicht eine Zugehörigkeitsbildung zu Tann, also *‘der im Tann stehende Baum’, während in der Neuzeit umgekehrt Tann als ‘Tannenwald’ aufgefaßt werden kann. Die nähere Verknüpfung mit oInd dhanvana‑ m. (ein Baumname) und oInd dhánu‑ ‘Bogen’ (aus dem Holz des betreffenden Baumes gefertigt, deshalb allenfalls Lärche) ist kaum ausreichend zu stützen. Entsprechendes gilt für Heth tanau‑ (ein nicht näher bestimmbarer Baum, Tanne wäre möglich).« — On Tann ‘forest’: C12, mHG tan(n), oHG in tan-esel ‘forest donkey’, mLG dan ‘forest’, »Entsprechend mLG denne ‘Lagerstätte, Niederung, Waldtal’, oEngl denn ‘Wildlager’. Außergermanisch entspricht vielleicht oInd dhánu‑ ‘Sandbank, Insel’, oInd dhánvan‑ ‘dürres, trockenes Land, Wüste’. Es kann also eine Bezeichnung für unzugängliches Gebiet vorliegen, deren weitere Herkunft unklar ist. Die Abgrenzung von den Sippen von Tanne und Tenne (und weiterem) ist aber keineswegs klar.«

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