Forms: 6 tuny(e, thunie, tunnye, 6–7 tony, tonny, tunnie, 7 tonnie, tunie, tunney, thinnye, 8–9 thunny, 7– tunny. [ad. F. thon (14th c.), ad. Pr. ton, or It. tonno, L. thunnus (thynnus), ad. Gr. θύννος, in same sense; the termination -ie, -y seems to be only English, perh. orig. diminutive, as in Johnnie.] A scombroid fish of the genus Orcynus, esp. the common tunny, O. thynnus, which has been fished from ancient times in the Mediterranean and Atlantic; it is one of the largest of food-fishes, often reaching a length of ten feet.
1530. Palsgr., 282/1. Tonny.
1555. Eden, Decades, 202. The Tunnye which is a great and good fysshe.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1568), 8 b/2. A tony, thinnus.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Auxumae, the yong fish, comming of the spawne of Thunie.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., VI. xxxvi. The Dolphin strong, the Tunny good of tast, The Mullet, Sturgeon, Samon (princely fish).
1601. Holland, Pliny, IX. xv. I. 242. The Tunies are exceeding great fishes: we have seene some of them to weigh fifteen talents, and the taile to be two cubits broad and a span.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 47. The fish called a Thinnye of Calcedonia.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), II. 308. We now … saw the Tunny and a great many flying-fish.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xvii. II. 10, note. Among a variety of different species, the Pelamides, a sort of Thunnies, were the most celebrated.
1834. Nat. Philos., III. Phys. Geog., 50/2 (U.K.S.). Tunnies … migrate … every year from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean.
b. attrib. and Comb., as tunny fish (= tunny), -fisher, -fishery, -net; tunny-faced adj.
1901. 19th Cent., Oct., 641. The stupid or *tunny-faced man.
1552. Huloet, *Tunye fyshe when it exceadeth not a foote in length, limaria.
1620. J. Mason, New-found-land, 5. I haue also seene Tonnie fish in Newland.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 428. The fisheries on the coast of Sardinia produce upwards of 60000 scudi in the article of tunny-fish.
1889. C. Edwardes, Sardinia, 350. A veteran *tunny-fisher.
1765. Smollett, Trav. (1766), II. xxxix. 225. Pliny says it [Antibes] was famous for its *tunny-fishery.
1901. 19th Cent., Oct., 645. Steaming out in our little launch to the fixed *tunny-nets.
Hence Tunnyhood (nonce-wd. after manhood), the state of a full-grown tunny.
1853. Badham, Halieut., 193. An unfortunate habit of squinting acquired by the young cordylas, and not corrected by the parents as their offspring advanced to thunnyhood.
