▪ 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’.