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From: gh@utai.UUCP (Graeme Hirst)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: tuna fish.  Also, kiwifruit.
Message-ID: <451@utai.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Apr-85 13:29:34 EST
Article-I.D.: utai.451
Posted: Tue Apr 23 13:29:34 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Apr-85 14:58:42 EST
References: <2550@drutx.UUCP> <395@ihu1m.UUCP>
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 19

> I heard (I think from John Ciardi) that "tuna" was an advertising
> ploy, you know, like Greenland.  The fish was commonly known (and
> still is by fishermen) as "horse mackerel", and was caught solely
> for use as bait.  Then some wise guy found that it didn't taste
> half bad (perhaps having been introduced to it in the Orient), but
> had to do something about the name to ensure popular acceptance.

Webster's gives "tuna" a respectable etymology going back to the Greek
for a wide class of fish (albacore, bonita, etc.), and dates its usage
in English to ca. 1884.  (Hey, maybe this is the tuna centennial year.)

> A more modern Greenlandism is "kiwi fruit".  Can a New Zealander
> out there tell us what you really call the thing?

In Australia, we always used to call them Chinese gooseberries, which makes
sense as they aren't gooseberries and don't (I understand) originate in China.
-- 
\\\\   Graeme Hirst    University of Toronto	Computer Science Department
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