tunny

[tuhn-ee]

noun, plural (especially collectively) tun·ny, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) tun·nies. Chiefly British.

Origin of tunny

1520–30; by apocope < Medieval Latin tunnīna false tunny, noun use of feminine of tunnīnus like a tunny, equivalent to tunn(us) tunny (variant of Latin thynnus < Greek thýnnos) + -īnus -ine¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for tunny

Historical Examples of tunny

An old Cornish name for the tunny, or a scomber, larger than the horse-mackerel.
The Sailor's Word-Book
William Henry Smyth
The flesh of the tunny is much esteemed, being firm and wholesome.
The Ocean World:
Louis Figuier
The medals of Asido, Florez describes as having sometimes a bull, and at others a fish of the tunny kind, upon them.
Excursions in the mountains of Ronda and Granada, with characteristic sketches of the inhabitants of southern Spain, v. 2/2
Charles Rochfort Scott
The tunny, coming in contact with this net, become alarmed, and make off from it in the only direction left open to them.
Excursions in the mountains of Ronda and Granada, with characteristic sketches of the inhabitants of southern Spain, v. 2/2
Charles Rochfort Scott
The next morning, and for many mornings afterwards, not a tunny was to be seen.
Lords of the World
Alfred John Church

British Dictionary definitions for tunny

tunny

noun plural -nies or -ny

another name for tuna 1

Word Origin for tunny

C16: from Old French thon, from Old Provençal ton, from Latin thunnus, from Greek

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tunny

large sea-fish of the mackerel order, 1520s, probably from Middle French thon (14c.), from Old Provençal ton, from Latin thunnus "a tuna, tunny," from Greek thynnos "a tuna, tunny," possibly in the literal sense of "darter," from thynein "dart along."