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Tune a fish

⁨486⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨GreenDust@lemmings.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

https://lemmings.world/pictrs/image/0470baaa-f903-41bc-ac23-ea93cb400319.jpeg

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Comments

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  • RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨28⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    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.

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  • hakase@lemmy.zip ⁨21⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    This entire thread is /c/badlinguistics.

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  • stopforgettingit@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    “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 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, catfish, and whitefish, this is also a fish and that is what you can expect when you open this can.

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  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨56⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    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

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  • daychilde@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    There’s no one single reason, but the top theories:

    1. 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.
    2. “Tuna fish” has a slightly sing-song pattern to the stressed/unstressed syllables that probably contributed
    3. 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.

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    • Retail4068@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I agree with 3. That’s exactly how my head cannon works and from what I can tell, others around me.

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  • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Colloquially tuna fish refers to the shredded salt brined tins of fish like this:

    Image

    Which I do think is worth distinguishing from the actual whole pieces of tuna

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    • then_three_more@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      So tinned tuna

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    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Why do they need to specify it’s in water? It’s a fish, of course it needs to be in water.

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      • bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

        Some are in oil, but as BP learned, this kills the crab.

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    • tomiant@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Brined tuna is an abomination before God. It must be sunflower oil.

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    • GreenDust@lemmings.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Image

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  • BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world ⁨43⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    Americans do love redundancies. e.g Just barely, only just, just a bit, true facts, free gift, end result, advance warning etc.

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    • hakase@lemmy.zip ⁨23⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      Americans languages do love redundancies.

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    • NoPanko@feddit.uk ⁨41⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      “3am in the morning”

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  • PolyLlamaRous@lemmy.world ⁨44⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    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)

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  • homes@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    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

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    • Jyek@sh.itjust.works ⁨52⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      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.

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      • homes@piefed.world ⁨35⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Umm… where are you getting this from?

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  • Ghostie@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    When I hear tuna fish I think stuff in the can. When I hear Tuna I think the filet. I know that’s just me.

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  • hedge_lord@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Pavitr Prabhakar and Miles Morales from the Spiderverse movies sitting at a table eating breakfast. Miles called chai chai tea and Pavitr says “chai tea?! You’re saying tea tea. Would I ask you for a coffee coffee with room for a cream cream?”

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    • Siethron@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      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.

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    • Gonzako@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Is the 3rd movie out?

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    • Klear@quokk.au ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah, stop it with the redundant pleonasms!

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  • NABDad@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I think it’s mostly for the dad joke:

    You can tune a piano, but you can’t tune a fish.

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  • s@piefed.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Some of you have never eaten tuna cow and it shows

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  • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    In the Netherlands people say koi karper. But koi means karper in Japanese, so basically people say karker karper. It’s stupid.

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  • smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If we didn’t say that, we wouldn’t have the joke about the difference between a piano and a fish.

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  • RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Ever hear of the tuna piano, OOP?

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  • DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You can twist knobs on a guitar, but you can’t make it drink.

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    • Akasazh@lemmy.world ⁨52⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      Instructions unclear knob stuck in guitar after drinking a lot. And something smells fishy

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    • SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      If I twist the knobs on my wife too hard she shits herself.

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      • tomiant@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Wow she must be really into that.

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      • fartographer@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I laughed so hard that I drooled a little. Thank you

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    • GreenDust@lemmings.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Speak for yourself

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  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    “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.

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  • dellish@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    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.

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  • BossDj@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    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

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    • tomiant@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      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!

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      • BossDj@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        To be fair, I’d never thought about it before this post! Just an observation of my mental association I guess!

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  • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’s about conversational cadence. If it was descriptive it would be a hyphenate.

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  • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Listen, y’all eat something called spotted dick - you can let us have tuna fish with no damn grief thank you

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  • Yoddel_Hickory@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    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?

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    • Jyek@sh.itjust.works ⁨51⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      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.

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  • f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    But is it “tuna” or “chyuna”?

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    • kamenlady@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      /ˈtjuːnə/

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    • GreenDust@lemmings.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Absolutely not

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  • troglodytis@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    That’s “chicken bird for midday lunch,” Carl.

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  • JoMiran@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Tuna fish is truncated “tuna fish sandwich”. So, a “fish sandwich” made with Tuna.

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    • Skyline969@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      But… tuna sandwich. The fish is unnecessary there too.

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      • starik@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        No, without the fish it would just be a mayonnaise and relish sandwich, which is not appealing.

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      • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I can’t tuna sandwich, it only makes sloshy sounds when I play it.

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    • gigastasio@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Tuna fish sandwich is truncated “tuna fish thunnus actinopterygii sandwich.” 🧐

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  • pigup@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Image

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  • thenextguy@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    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.

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    • tomiant@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Not all language is weird, some language makes more sense than other, that’s the whole contention!

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  • Philharmonic3@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’s to make sure we know we’re having tuna fish instead of tuna of the land, which is what we call chicken.

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  • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Isn’t there a famous clip of one of the Kardashians asking if tuna was chicken?

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    • Floodedwomb@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Jessica Simpson

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      • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Right, that’s who I was thinking of

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