Tuna (1866?); Gerritsen Collection Online

Mon Nov 4 18:15:24 UTC 2002

Please disregard my earlier posting on the subject.  I hit the wrong key and
sent an unfinished version of this post.

In a message dated 11/3/02 1:19:50 AM Eastern Standard Time, Bapopik at AOL.COM
writes:

> TUNA
>
>     Andy Smith asked about "tuna" and if I could beat 1881.

Easy, and nothing fishy about it either.  More precisely, it is fishy, but it
does not involve fish.  "Tuna" is a word the Spanish applied to a New World
cactus whose botanical name is either _Opuntia tuna_ or _Opuntia
ficus-indica_  (there is some uncertainty as to whether _O. tuna_ is a
separate species or merely a variety of _O. ficus-indica_.  This is sort of a
"prickly pair" among botanists.).  This plant was introduced into the
Mediterranean and other areas and is known in Israel as the "sabra".  In
English there are a variety of names, including "prickly pear", "Indian fig",
and "tuna".  Herely is a samply of pre-1881 English-language citations for
the Opuntia "tuna" in the Making of America database

Americanisms; the English of the New world.
Schele De Vere, Maximilian, 1820-1898.
685 p.
New York,
C. Scribner & company,
1872.

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;sid=8e75e977f7

0d91cfc544d73aee41f6f6;q1=tuna;cite1restrict=title;cite2restrict=title;cite3re

strict=title;rgn=full%20text;firstpubl1=1800;firstpubl2=1925;idno=AGD2486.0001

.001;view=image;seq=00000688

"The prickly pear cactus, known also as Indian fig (Cactus opuntia) bears a
purplish pear-shaped fruit, which in Southern countries becomes
not only edible, but luscious, and is there generally known under
its Spanish name tuna-a term which also serves to designate the
pleasant beverage made from the fruit."

The book of the world: being an account of all republics, empires, kingdoms,
and nations, in reference to their geography, statistics, commerce. &c. ...
By Richard S. Fisher ... Illustrated with maps and charts.
Fisher, Richard Swainson.
2 v. 3 fold. maps. (inc. front.) fold. col. plates 26 cm.
New York,
J. H. Colton,
1852-53.

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;sid=8e75e977f7

0d91cfc544d73aee41f6f6;q1=tuna;cite1restrict=title;cite2restrict=title;cite3re

strict=title;rgn=full%20text;firstpubl1=1800;firstpubl2=1925;idno=ABL1714.0002

.001;view=image;seq=00000397

"[referring to the Etna region of Sicily] By the side of the plane, the
poplar, and the willow, grow the cactus tuna, or prickly fig, the orange, the
citron, the olive,  the myrtle, the laurel, the carob tree, and the
pomegranate;

Resources of the Pacific slope : a statistical and descriptive summary of the
mines and minerals, climate, topography, agriculture, commerce ... of the
states and territories west of the Rocky Mountains / by J. Ross Browne ; with
a sketch of the settlement and exploration of Lower California / [by A.S.
Taylor].
Browne, J. Ross (John Ross), 1821-1875.
678, 200 p. ; 24 cm.
New York :
D. Appleton,
1869.

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;sid=8e75e977f7

0d91cfc544d73aee41f6f6;q1=tuna;cite1restrict=title;cite2restrict=title;cite3re

strict=title;rgn=full%20text;firstpubl1=1800;firstpubl2=1925;idno=AFQ0684.0001

.001;view=image;seq=0843

page A165

"The fruit of the tarajo is similar to the tuna (prickly pear)..."

The natural wealth of California. Comprising duly history, geography,
topography, and scenery; climate; agriculture and commercial products;
geology, zoology, and botany; mineralogy, mines, and mining processes;
manufactures; steamship lines, railroads, and commerce; immigration,a
detailed description of each county. By Titus Fey Cronise.
Cronise, Titus Fey.
San Francisco
H. H. Hancroft & Co.,
1868

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;sid=8e75e977f7

0d91cfc544d73aee41f6f6;q1=tuna;cite1restrict=title;cite2restrict=title;cite3re

strict=title;rgn=full%20text;firstpubl1=1800;firstpubl2=1925;idno=AJL3430.0001

.001;view=image;seq=0124

"The tuna, or gigantic fruit-bearing cactus..."

I was not able to find a pre-1881 usage of "tuna" meaning "tunafish".

The next time you meet an Israeli, be sure to tell him he's a tuna.

>  "Why we had some very nice Aku (tuna), it tasted so good,--we all enjoyed
it
> going to bed that night really _maona_ (stuffed)."
>  Letter from Kaleleonalani, Queen of the Hawaiian Islands, February 14, 1866
>  In THE VICTORIAN VISITORS: AN ACCOUNT OF THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM 1861-1866 (
> Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1958), pg. 351.

It is not clear from context whether this aku is tunafish or sabra.

>  ---------------------------------------------------------------
>  GERRITSEN COLLECTION ONLINE
>
>     What we have here is a fine collection with a bad search engine.
>     THE COOK is here.  So is MISS BEECHER'S DOMESTIC RECEIPT BOOK (1846)
and
> THE CAROLINA HOUSEWIFE (1851).
>     I limited it to the years 1800-1918.  I typed in "jazz."  377 hits!  I
> looked at the "matches."  Not one was "jazz."
>     I limited it to the years 1800-1910.  I typed in "hot dog."  32 hits.
> Most weren't even in English sources.  I don't know why it considered any
of
> these as "hot dog" matches.
>     Bad search engine!  Bad!

Probably not a bad search engine but rather an OCR reader struggling with
poor-quality originals.  There are not many bad search engines on the
Internet.  There are, however, thousands upon thousands of pages of text
which should never have been let near an OCR reader in the first place.  Top
it off with the habit of MOA (and I'm sure many other databases) of scanning
by page instead of by column, meaning that many spurious words are created
across a column break and it's not surprising that you get tons of false
positives.

Suppose the OCR reader encounters the following:

        ...... For-
        tuna .....

This is obviously the name Fortuna that happens to be split across a line
break.  So should the search engine disregard it on a search on the word
"tuna"?  No, because it might possibly be the name of a health-food group
"Against-Meat-For-Tuna".

By the way, in the 1872 citation above, the OCR reader misread the orginal as
"tZuna" and I found it only because the OCR reader correctly picked up the
entry "tuna" in the index of the book.

      - Jim Landau