Tune a fish

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

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

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

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.

I bought some tuna fish and chai tea with cash i got from the atm machine

Tuna fish is the chicken bird of the sea water.

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

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

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.

Horse back riding

If you don’t specify, Americans will ride the wrong part of the horse

Some of you have never eaten tuna cow and it shows

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

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

I think it's mostly for the dad joke:

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

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

This entire thread is /c/badlinguistics.

Tuna is just the dish, tuna on a plate.

Tuna Fish is actually Tuna Salad. You would order a tuna fish sandwich (tuna salad), but you would not go to a restaurant and say "I will have the tuna fish" because that is just tuna.

We have to specify so that Jessica Simpson doesn't get confused with Chicken.

The opposite of "cow steak"

Don't want to confuse it with a guitar tuna

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

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)

its tuna fish because it refers specifically to the canned tuna fish sandwich and additional ingredients.

Tuna means prickly pear cactus fruit in Spanish, I've heard it called that pretty often in Texas

"吞拿魚"

[transliteration of "tuna"] + ["fish"]

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.

Of note, the homophonic word, Tuna means the large fish with lots of mercury in it in English, and means the fruit of the prickly pear cactus in Spanish. I've made honey wine (mead or in this case melomel) with tuna, the fruit, and it's amusing to hear people's reaction to "tuna melomel".

But is it "toona" or "chyuna"?

Definitely the most worrying thing about America right now.

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

“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.

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

The American English language is wierd... Two to four instances of one word to mean different things or to put emphasis on plurals or not... Plus certain connotations depending on who you're talking to. So trying to go and learn different languages, especially when they only have one instance of something, I have found.

An educational article from the UK.

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?__goaway_challenge=js-refresh&__goaway_id=b9170d881bbf10dbda83067dd8e00cd2&__goaway_referer=https%3A%2F%2Finv.nadeko.net%2F&v=5wSw3IWRJa0

For the same reason that American cannibals eat human flesh

I just call it canned tuna. Or tuna from a can.

Also soda-pop.

I prefer to stick to soylent human when I’m hungry

They don’t have to say “tuna fish”. Most don’t, as far as I know. Who are you hanging out with that you think it’s somehow mandatory?

I love bull beef burgers

Why do they call their babies "Baby Joe" or "Baby Velma"? We know they are babies. Do they also call them "Young Adult Joe", and "Middle Aged Velma"?

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

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

Mutton goat is the best meat. I've always said that mutton is GOAT.

I am having tuna fish as opposed to tuna steak.

theyre just trying to make it sound right :^)

Next up: seafood. Its just meat from the water.

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

You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish

• goku

I would love to tune my bass

I'd rather have a steak cow.

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

Ever hear of the tuna piano, OOP?

That's "chicken bird for midday lunch," Carl.

We know tuna is a fish is a wild statement when talking about americans

I want me a big cow steak with a side of shrimp shrimp. Could you crumble some pig bacon on it?

Given the tvp shenanigans that food manufacturers have tried to pass off and you have to ask? And BTW, dolphin is not a fish

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.

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?

Okay, so can I ask about the "hot water heater" then? Do some people have a tepid water heater in their homes? 🤨

I've never heard an American call it tuna fish. I've only ever heard Bri*ish people call it that.

I've never heard a single person say tunafish outside of TV. I have no idea where the idea that Americans use this frequently came from, but it's not true.

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

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