"Tuna fish" is a phase used primarily for canned tuna, but not for the live fish or things like tuna steak. It's because when canned tuna was created in the US in the early 1900's people who were not right next to the sea (like the majority of the US) did not know what "tuna" was. Firstly, the word is a of Spanish origin and secondly, its a salt water only fish. So in order to sell this to middle America, which was where most of the consumers were at the time but was also made up of people who have never seen the ocean, they added the word "fish" to show like other tinned fish that was commonly purchased: codfish, bluefish, and whitefish, this is also a fish and that is what you can expect when you open this can.
The concept could be as old as the New Testament, but apparently this specific phrasing is from the early 1900s, so it'd be about 60-70¢ now depending on which year you want to pick.
Maybe try harder. Be the change you want to see in the world. I don't necessarily believe in you but I'm sure someone does! And in the end that's all the motivation you need.
One of my favorite pair of words that don't get used much anymore is sweetmeat and sweetbread, with the former being candy and the latter being animal pancreas.
The etymology is that meat (from mete) just meant food, and bread (from bræd) meant flesh. Sweet used to mean a more generalized pleasant taste or sensation, rather than more specifically sugary.
Look, Americans are genetically dumb as we all know, but I don't think Tuna Fish is necessarily a consequence of that affliction in particular. It's like saying "Sail Fish", "Sail" is not a fish, it is the canvas you put on boat masts, and "Tuna Fish" is like that I think. It's a type of fish, of the tuna kind. That said, before I go just let me take another opportunity to state that Americans are genetically dumb as we all know.
Hahaha eugenics? Have you considered not skipping school and stop drinking lead paint? First of all it's a fucking joke, second of all, there was no mention of eugenics, thirdly, how do you think intelligence works? Magic?
There's no one single reason, but the top theories:
Tuna oil was a thing before "tuna fish". Yes, people could have said "tuna" but they didn't. That's language for you. People say "ATM machine" and "PIN number", too.
"Tuna fish" has a slightly sing-song pattern to the stressed/unstressed syllables that probably contributed
For whatever reason, "tuna fish" tends to refer to canned tuna, whereas "tuna" can include fresh (or frozen) tuna.
It's… just how language evolves.
I think, however, that "tuna fish" is slowly dying out in favour of just "tuna". As a 50 year old, anecdotally I have seen the usage decrease in my lifetime.
Chai may mean tea, but since it is different from the typical English tea 'chai' was modified to be an adjective for tea denoting the difference. Because that's how language works.
As an American who was only ever said tuna or tuna sandwich, etc. I do think "Tuna fish" has an appealing flow (euphonious consonants without any blends) and the ish pairs well with ich in sandwich
In my mind, tuna fish is the shredded stuff in a can and tuna is bigger pieces
No, nonono, now you are committing semantic sins that weren't even implied in the original post! It's either or, you can't have different names for tuna solely depending on what type of package they come in, that makes even less sense!
Florida. It's this plant, nopales are the leaves, tuna is the fruit. Also the whole plant and the fruit are called prickly pear, but when I see it for sale (as food), it's Tuna. Nopales taste sort of like green peppers to me.
Tuna Fish is actually Tuna Salad. You would order a tuna fish sandwich (tuna salad), but you would not go to a restaurant and say "I will have the tuna fish" because that is just tuna.
Also if I’m walking up to a sandwich shop or a restaurant that serves tuna steaks on a grill or something of the sort and say “I’ll have the tuna” the assumption is, they know I what I mean (variance for multiple dishes not included).
Tuna was not always popular and when people didn't know what it was it helped people know what they are buying.
The US also having a large portion of bilingual people with a Spanish base, this helps it not get confused with cactus fruit (apparently tuna in Spanish)
Of note, the homophonic word, Tuna means the large fish with lots of mercury in it in English, and means the fruit of the prickly pear cactus in Spanish. I've made honey wine (mead or in this case melomel) with tuna, the fruit, and it's amusing to hear people's reaction to "tuna melomel".
The American English language is wierd... Two to four instances of one word to mean different things or to put emphasis on plurals or not... Plus certain connotations depending on who you're talking to. So trying to go and learn different languages, especially when they only have one instance of something, I have found.
They also love saying Koala Bear (they aren't a bear) and Dingo Dog. No, they're just koalas and dingoes. Americans just seem to like adding words where they aren't necessary. My pet hate is "off of", as in "Take your shoes off of the table!" No, just take them off the table, no need for redundancy.
It's a heater to make hot water. As opposed to a space heater, which is a heater used to heat a space and a food heater that is a heater used to heat food to serving temps and a floor heater which is a heater to warm up a floor.
But a water heater is going to produce hot water, right? That's what it does. It's redundant to call it a hot water heater, unless you have multiple water heaters for different temperatures, then you'd need to specify, like the lukewarm water heater. I'll note that we don't call them hot food heaters, warm space heaters, or warm floor heaters, because we know that's going to be the result.
I've never heard a single person say tunafish outside of TV. I have no idea where the idea that Americans use this frequently came from, but it's not true.
There’s a difference between “tuna” and “tuna fish”.
“Tuna” is a fish
“Tuna fish” is an approximation. A culinary goal, if you will. It starts as simply a flavor and can evolve all the way into a composite fast food sandwich. And while either, both, and or everything in between may taste exactly like tuna, it isn’t. It’s “tuna fish“. Because it didn’t start there, it merely ended there.
Similar to the difference between butter and margarine
This is just not true.... Tuna fish is the stuff in a can. Tuna filet is a filet of tuna. Tuna is the live or freshly caught fish from the ocean. Anything not actually made of tuna is imitation tuna or tuna flavored or artificial tuna.
lol I was clarifying I meant canned tuna for tuna salad, because I thought you assumed I slathered a tuna steak in relish. Are you also opposed to the use of dill relish in tuna salad?
"Tuna fish" is a phase used primarily for canned tuna, but not for the live fish or things like tuna steak. It's because when canned tuna was created in the US in the early 1900's people who were not right next to the sea (like the majority of the US) did not know what "tuna" was. Firstly, the word is a of Spanish origin and secondly, its a salt water only fish. So in order to sell this to middle America, which was where most of the consumers were at the time but was also made up of people who have never seen the ocean, they added the word "fish" to show like other tinned fish that was commonly purchased: codfish, bluefish, and whitefish, this is also a fish and that is what you can expect when you open this can.
Colloquially tuna fish refers to the shredded salt brined tins of fish like this:
Which I do think is worth distinguishing from the actual whole pieces of tuna
So a tuna can...? Canned Tuna? Canned Fish?
"Tuna Fish" is still redundant and doesn't actually address the can
Yes, language evolves haphazardly and often doesn't make literal sense.
Alright, that's my 2 cents. I'll catch you on the flipside.
How old is the “2 cents” figure of speech? Why hasn’t it adjusted with inflation?
The concept could be as old as the New Testament, but apparently this specific phrasing is from the early 1900s, so it'd be about 60-70¢ now depending on which year you want to pick.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/two-cents-and-sensibility/
Flipside of what? Are we flipping coins, and you will see us underneath the coins?
Like how using the word "literally" somehow became not literal.
I want the destroy those people. Literally.
Notably, "literally" added its figurative meaning literally^[literally, not figuratively] centuries ago.
I don't disagree with you but I don't control American English. I imagine both head cheese and sweetbreads would also upset you
Maybe try harder. Be the change you want to see in the world. I don't necessarily believe in you but I'm sure someone does! And in the end that's all the motivation you need.
One of my favorite pair of words that don't get used much anymore is sweetmeat and sweetbread, with the former being candy and the latter being animal pancreas.
The etymology is that meat (from mete) just meant food, and bread (from bræd) meant flesh. Sweet used to mean a more generalized pleasant taste or sensation, rather than more specifically sugary.
Wait till you hear about “soda pop”
"I want a coke. No not that one - the Mountain Dew!"
I see you’ve also been to Georgia
Look, Americans are genetically dumb as we all know, but I don't think Tuna Fish is necessarily a consequence of that affliction in particular. It's like saying "Sail Fish", "Sail" is not a fish, it is the canvas you put on boat masts, and "Tuna Fish" is like that I think. It's a type of fish, of the tuna kind. That said, before I go just let me take another opportunity to state that Americans are genetically dumb as we all know.
If you want to talk eugenics, Twitter is that way ->
Hahaha eugenics? Have you considered not skipping school and stop drinking lead paint? First of all it's a fucking joke, second of all, there was no mention of eugenics, thirdly, how do you think intelligence works? Magic?
I know this is a bad troll but it's also just sad that people actually are actually as retarded as you're pretending to be
So tinned tuna
No!
If I gotta use a freaking tool to open you, you, can't call yourself tinned!
Why do they need to specify it's in water? It's a fish, of course it needs to be in water.
Some are in oil, but as BP learned, this kills the crab.
Brined tuna is an abomination before God. It must be sunflower oil.
There's no one single reason, but the top theories:
It's… just how language evolves.
I think, however, that "tuna fish" is slowly dying out in favour of just "tuna". As a 50 year old, anecdotally I have seen the usage decrease in my lifetime.
I agree with 3. That's exactly how my head cannon works and from what I can tell, others around me.
I bought some tuna fish and chai tea with cash i got from the atm machine
cash money
obtained with my pin number
I love this comment, I'm going to save it on a PDF file.
This one is actually correct. PDF stands for Portable Document Format.
Ooops. I mixed it with some other then
Chai may mean tea, but since it is different from the typical English tea 'chai' was modified to be an adjective for tea denoting the difference. Because that's how language works.
Yeah, stop it with the redundant pleonasms!
Is the 3rd movie out?
As an American who was only ever said tuna or tuna sandwich, etc. I do think "Tuna fish" has an appealing flow (euphonious consonants without any blends) and the ish pairs well with ich in sandwich
In my mind, tuna fish is the shredded stuff in a can and tuna is bigger pieces
No, nonono, now you are committing semantic sins that weren't even implied in the original post! It's either or, you can't have different names for tuna solely depending on what type of package they come in, that makes even less sense!
To be fair, I'd never thought about it before this post! Just an observation of my mental association I guess!
Tuna fish is the chicken bird of the sea water.
My aneurysm is acting up again
You can twist knobs on a guitar, but you can't make it drink.
If I twist the knobs on my wife too hard she shits herself.
Wow she must be really into that.
I laughed so hard that I drooled a little. Thank you
Speak for yourself
Instructions unclear knob stuck in guitar after drinking a lot. And something smells fishy
Well, where I live, Tuna is also a cactus. Prickly pear is often called tuna. So yeah, tuna (fish) and tuna (fruit) can need disambiguation.
Where do you live?
Florida. It's this plant, nopales are the leaves, tuna is the fruit. Also the whole plant and the fruit are called prickly pear, but when I see it for sale (as food), it's Tuna. Nopales taste sort of like green peppers to me.
Opuntia - Wikipedia https://share.google/l2Ax80KhUVxMh7r7A
That's actually really fascinating and neat.
But I'm also legally required to make fun of Florida and use that as the reason you must clarify tuna is a fish.
Horse back riding
If you don’t specify, Americans will ride the wrong part of the horse
Thanks to Catherine the Great, we all have to specify which part of the horse we're going to ride.
I thought it was Mr. Hands, the aerospace engineer, that made us require that distinction.
What was that acronym he came up with, something about I don't need a bucket cuz the horse is just the right height 🤯
Honestly, I try to avoid knowing any more about him than I can. I know a bunch of meta details, but didn't dig that far into it.
I vaguely rember Catherine the Great*, but I dont remember anything about a horse.
I am ready to learn though
::: spoiler *
Was she after Henry the 8th? The first Queen to rule without a king by her side?
:::
For this one could it be horse back riding because people also used to have horse carts ? Unless in other countries it’s different lol
Some of you have never eaten tuna cow and it shows
If we didn't say that, we wouldn't have the joke about the difference between a piano and a fish.
I think it's mostly for the dad joke:
You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish.
I feel there's some joke to be made involving that ribbed fish shaped instrument we used to play with in elementary school
Dad joke or name of a great album. That the the dad joke came first is pretty much beyond dispute, lol.
A Czech reporter's name is Jan Tuna. Please keep saying "tuna fish" for his* sake.
* he/him, Jan is a common male name here derived from John, the female counterpart is Jana
"hey Jan, I'm watching some peertube chef and he's talking about 'bluefin tuna'! Did you used to be punk in college?"
No, I feel that's pretty universal.
Universal in America
What's the difference between a tuna and a piano?
if you teach a man to fuck a fish he'll tuna piano forever?
I've seen that on rotten.com
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that was, like, Plato or something
One makes hideous sounds when I try to play it as a musical instrument, and the other I can play reasonably competently.
Sorry, you are thinking of a tuba and a piano. Easy mistake.
I didn't come here for a biology lesson, can I eat my tuba fish already?!
The opposite of "cow steak"
Steak is a cut, not a type of meat.
Steak is perpendicular to the grain, fillet is with.
So you can have a beef fillet or a salmon steak
But not "beefsteak," because that's a tomato
This entire thread is /c/badlinguistics.
Tuna is just the dish, tuna on a plate.
Tuna Fish is actually Tuna Salad. You would order a tuna fish sandwich (tuna salad), but you would not go to a restaurant and say "I will have the tuna fish" because that is just tuna.
If I want the tuna salad, I’ll order tuna salad.
Also if I’m walking up to a sandwich shop or a restaurant that serves tuna steaks on a grill or something of the sort and say “I’ll have the tuna” the assumption is, they know I what I mean (variance for multiple dishes not included).
We have to specify so that Jessica Simpson doesn't get confused with Chicken.
Don't want to confuse it with a guitar tuna
Listen, y’all eat something called spotted dick - you can let us have tuna fish with no damn grief thank you
Tuna was not always popular and when people didn't know what it was it helped people know what they are buying. The US also having a large portion of bilingual people with a Spanish base, this helps it not get confused with cactus fruit (apparently tuna in Spanish)
its tuna fish because it refers specifically to the canned tuna fish sandwich and additional ingredients.
I’ve noticed the same thing with Koi. But not with trout or bass or most other fish.
It makes sense for swordfish, because just sword is ambiguous.
Language is weird.
Not all language is weird, some language makes more sense than other, that's the whole contention!
Of note, the homophonic word, Tuna means the large fish with lots of mercury in it in English, and means the fruit of the prickly pear cactus in Spanish. I've made honey wine (mead or in this case melomel) with tuna, the fruit, and it's amusing to hear people's reaction to "tuna melomel".
Tuna means prickly pear cactus fruit in Spanish, I've heard it called that pretty often in Texas
"吞拿魚"
[transliteration of "tuna"] + ["fish"]
Come to think of it, we do say "tuna fish sandwich", but we also say "tuna salad sandwich".
“Hand me that can of tuna please, I want to make a tuna fish sandwich. “
These words have come out of my mouth.
Yes they’re wrong. But something about the cadence.
Definitely the most worrying thing about America right now.
But is it "toona" or "chyuna"?
/ˈtjuːnə/
Absolutely not
An educational article from the UK.
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?__goaway_challenge=js-refresh&__goaway_id=b9170d881bbf10dbda83067dd8e00cd2&__goaway_referer=https%3A%2F%2Finv.nadeko.net%2F&v=5wSw3IWRJa0
The American English language is wierd... Two to four instances of one word to mean different things or to put emphasis on plurals or not... Plus certain connotations depending on who you're talking to. So trying to go and learn different languages, especially when they only have one instance of something, I have found.
Americans do love redundancies. e.g Just barely, only just, just a bit, true facts, free gift, end result, advance warning etc.
AmericansLanguages do love redundancies.I'll take just that cookie (You want the whole cookie)
And
I'll take just a bit of that cookie (You want a piece of the cookie)
I made it just barely to the concert (Implies you were almost late)
And
I made it just to the concert (Implies you had something else to go to but you just went to the concert)
“3am in the morning”
*afternoon
I just call it canned tuna. Or tuna from a can.
For the same reason that American cannibals eat human flesh
Mutton goat is the best meat. I've always said that mutton is GOAT.
TIL some cultures refer to goat as mutton instead of sheep.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_and_mutton
I think you are wrong and mammoth is GOAT, because if you think about it, we still have mutton, but we literally ate all the mammoth.
Isn't there a famous clip of one of the Kardashians asking if tuna was chicken?
Jessica Simpson
That is hilarious.
Right, that's who I was thinking of
Also soda-pop.
I am having tuna fish as opposed to tuna steak.
tuna steak is fish, so why isn't it tuna fish steak?
I love bull beef burgers
It's about conversational cadence. If it was descriptive it would be a hyphenate.
They don’t have to say “tuna fish”. Most don’t, as far as I know. Who are you hanging out with that you think it’s somehow mandatory?
I prefer to stick to soylent human when I’m hungry
theyre just trying to make it sound right :^)
Why do they call their babies "Baby Joe" or "Baby Velma"? We know they are babies. Do they also call them "Young Adult Joe", and "Middle Aged Velma"?
It's to make sure we know we're having tuna fish instead of tuna of the land, which is what we call chicken.
Next up: seafood. Its just meat from the water.
I'd rather have a steak cow.
You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish
Given the tvp shenanigans that food manufacturers have tried to pass off and you have to ask? And BTW, dolphin is not a fish
I would love to tune my bass
I want me a big cow steak with a side of shrimp shrimp. Could you crumble some pig bacon on it?
Same thing as "left-hand side". You're not children anymore, you can just say left side.
Would "left-foot side" make sense? Would it be different from the hand?
Left-hand side is like saying your left, not mine. You could also say on your left but then again, English has lots of ways to say lots of things.
We know tuna is a fish is a wild statement when talking about americans
They also love saying Koala Bear (they aren't a bear) and Dingo Dog. No, they're just koalas and dingoes. Americans just seem to like adding words where they aren't necessary. My pet hate is "off of", as in "Take your shoes off of the table!" No, just take them off the table, no need for redundancy.
Nobody says dingo dog.
You're right, and when you're right, you're dingo dog right, my friend.
In the Netherlands people say koi karper. But koi means karper in Japanese, so basically people say karker karper. It's stupid.
That's "chicken bird for midday lunch," Carl.
Ever hear of the tuna piano, OOP?
Okay, so can I ask about the "hot water heater" then? Do some people have a tepid water heater in their homes? 🤨
It's a heater to make hot water. As opposed to a space heater, which is a heater used to heat a space and a food heater that is a heater used to heat food to serving temps and a floor heater which is a heater to warm up a floor.
But a water heater is going to produce hot water, right? That's what it does. It's redundant to call it a hot water heater, unless you have multiple water heaters for different temperatures, then you'd need to specify, like the lukewarm water heater. I'll note that we don't call them hot food heaters, warm space heaters, or warm floor heaters, because we know that's going to be the result.
I've never heard an American call it tuna fish. I've only ever heard Bri*ish people call it that.
I've never heard a single person say tunafish outside of TV. I have no idea where the idea that Americans use this frequently came from, but it's not true.
I'm from the US and say tuna fish for canned tuna, just saying tuna can be sushi or like frozen fish. The US is huge it's probably regional
People usually use tunafish to refer to tuna salad, which is mainly canned tuna, mayonnaise, and a few seasonings, typically served on a sandwich.
"Tuna fish" is common and refers to canned tuna specifically.
There’s a difference between “tuna” and “tuna fish”.
“Tuna” is a fish
“Tuna fish” is an approximation. A culinary goal, if you will. It starts as simply a flavor and can evolve all the way into a composite fast food sandwich. And while either, both, and or everything in between may taste exactly like tuna, it isn’t. It’s “tuna fish“. Because it didn’t start there, it merely ended there.
Similar to the difference between butter and margarine
This is just not true.... Tuna fish is the stuff in a can. Tuna filet is a filet of tuna. Tuna is the live or freshly caught fish from the ocean. Anything not actually made of tuna is imitation tuna or tuna flavored or artificial tuna.
Umm… where are you getting this from?
Try google, because their sources are better than yours.
It’s tuna. Get over it.
How little you must think of yourself to such a mini school thing upset you.
Lol
Tuna fish is truncated "tuna fish sandwich". So, a "fish sandwich" made with Tuna.
But… tuna sandwich. The fish is unnecessary there too.
No, without the fish it would just be a mayonnaise and relish sandwich, which is not appealing.
That's not true, the eggs in mayonnaise are usually pealed first.
Your eggs are too loud.
Tuna with relish? How dare you commit such crimes?!
Canned tuna
Flat tire
What are we doing?
lol I was clarifying I meant canned tuna for tuna salad, because I thought you assumed I slathered a tuna steak in relish. Are you also opposed to the use of dill relish in tuna salad?
You have just made a powerful enemy.
I can't tuna sandwich, it only makes sloshy sounds when I play it.