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Tune a fish

⁨620⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨GreenDust@lemmings.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

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

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  • stopforgettingit@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨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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  • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨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 ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      So tinned tuna

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      • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        No!

        If I gotta use a freaking tool to open you, you, can’t call yourself tinned!

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    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨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 ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • tomiant@piefed.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • GreenDust@lemmings.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Image

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  • daychilde@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨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 ⁨6⁩ ⁨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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  • RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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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  • Hikermick@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Don’t want to confuse it with a guitar tuna

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  • codapine@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    What’s the difference between a tuna and a piano?

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    • svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨36⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      One makes hideous sounds when I try to play it as a musical instrument, and the other I can play reasonably competently.

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  • hakase@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    This entire thread is /c/badlinguistics.

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  • hedge_lord@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨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 ⁨7⁩ ⁨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 ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Is the 3rd movie out?

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    • Klear@quokk.au ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah, stop it with the redundant pleonasms!

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  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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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    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      “hey Jan, I’m watching some peertube chef and he’s talking about ‘bluefin tuna’! Did you used to be punk in college?”

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  • DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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      • tomiant@piefed.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Wow she must be really into that.

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      • fartographer@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • Akasazh@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • GreenDust@lemmings.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Speak for yourself

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  • BossDj@piefed.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨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 ⁨8⁩ ⁨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 ⁨6⁩ ⁨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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  • s@piefed.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Some of you have never eaten tuna cow and it shows

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  • smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨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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  • Ghostie@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨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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    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      No, I feel that’s pretty universal.

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  • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    “吞拿魚”

    [transliteration of “tuna”] + [“fish”]

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  • BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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 ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Americans languages do love redundancies.

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    • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      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)

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    • NoPanko@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      “3am in the morning”

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      • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        *afternoon

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  • NABDad@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨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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    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I feel there’s some joke to be made involving that ribbed fish shaped instrument we used to play with in elementary school

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    • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Dad joke or name of a great album. That the the dad joke came first is pretty much beyond dispute, lol.

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  • homes@piefed.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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 ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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 ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Umm… where are you getting this from?

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  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Given the tvp shenanigans that food manufacturers have tried to pass off and you have to ask?

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  • Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Also soda-pop.

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  • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨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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  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨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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  • PolyLlamaRous@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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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  • f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    But is it “tuna” or “chyuna”?

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    • bampop@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      tioona

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    • kamenlady@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      /ˈtjuːnə/

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    • GreenDust@lemmings.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Absolutely not

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  • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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  • dellish@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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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  • krow@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    theyre just trying to make it sound right :^)

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  • JoMiran@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • Skyline969@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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      • starik@lemmy.zip ⁨9⁩ ⁨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 ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • gigastasio@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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  • thenextguy@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨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 ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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  • vic_rattlehead@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Come to think of it, we do say “tuna fish sandwich”, but we also say “tuna salad sandwich”.

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