You are here: BP HOME > ARAB > Etymological Dictionary of Arabic > fulltext
Etymological Dictionary of Arabic

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages
Choose display
  • Enable images
  • Enable footnotes
    • Show all footnotes
    • Minimize footnotes
Search-help
Choose specific texts..
Etymological Dictionary of Arabic
    Click to Expand/Collapse Option Complete text
Click to Expand/Collapse OptionEtymArab
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionbāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optiontāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionṯāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionǧīm
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionḥāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionḫāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optiondāl
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionḏāl
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionrāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionzāy
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionsīn
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionšīn
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionṣād
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionḍād
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionṭāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionẓāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionʕayn
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionġayn
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionfāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionqāf
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionkāf
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionlām
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionmīm
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionnūn
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionhāʔ
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionwāw
Click to Expand/Collapse Optionyāʔ
Back to library
tunn تُنّ 
ID … • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√TNː (TNN) 
n. 
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. 
▪ … 
… 
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’. 
– 
Permanent link
Go to Wiki Documentation
Enhet: Det humanistiske fakultet   Utviklet av: IT-seksjonen ved HF
Login