atún

See also: atun

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish atún, from Old Spanish atun, borrowed from Andalusian Arabic.

During the Francoist dictatorship, labels on food products were not available in Catalan, leading to a situation where some speakers began to use the atún for tuna as a food product and tonyina for the living fish, similar to the distinction between beef and cow in English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [əˈtun]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [aˈtun]
• Rhymes: -atún

Noun

atún m (plural atunes)

1. (Castilianism, proscribed) tuna (in a can)

   Synonym: tonyina

Galician

Alternative forms

• atum (reintegrationist)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈtuŋ/ [aˈt̪uŋ]
• Rhymes: -uŋ
• Hyphenation: a‧tún

Noun

atún m (plural atúns)

1. tuna

   Synonym: túnido

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Phoenicianbor.

Ancient Greek θῠ́ννος (thŭ́nnos)bor.

Latin thunnusbor.

Arabic تُنّ (tunn)

Andalusian Arabicbor.

Old Spanish atun

Spanish atún

Inherited from Old Spanish atun, borrowed from Andalusian Arabic [Term?], from Arabic اَلتُّنّ (at-tunn, “tuna”), from Latin thunnus, from Ancient Greek θύννος (thúnnos).

Compare Portuguese atum. See also the related tonina, which may have influenced this word.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈtun/ [aˈt̪ũn]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -un
• Syllabification: a‧tún

Noun

atún m (plural atunes)

1. tuna (fish)
2. (colloquial) ignorant, stupid person

Derived terms

• atún de zorra
• atunero
• por atún y a ver al duque

Descendants

• → Basque: atun
• → Catalan: atún
• → Tagalog: atún
• → Tok Pisin: atun
• ⇒ United States Spanish: tuna
  • → English: tuna (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “atún”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025