Learning about tuna

Learning daily, yes. That's one of the things I like about living here in France. Most of the learning I do is about the language. New terms, new expressions. Differences between English, or American, and French. French and English really are deux langues ennemies because they have intermingled at so many stages in history. Words you thought you understood suddenly reveal themselves to be tricky.

That's what's happened this week with the various terms that apply to tuna. Intermarché had a sale on fresh tuna steaks — darnes de thon à la coupe. Darne derives from a Breton word and means "fish steak", such as what we call a cross-section slice of salmon or swordfish or tuna. The expression à la coupe means "cut to order." But those weren't the confusing terms. The tuna on sale was called thon germon. I've seen the term germon many times over the years, but never really thought about what it meant or how to translate it. It seems that the etymology of the term is more or less a mystery.

There are several varieties of tuna that are canned in France and in Europe. One is thon germon. Another is albacore. And still another is called thon listao. (By the way, thon is pronounced the same as the possessive pronoun ton — "your" — in French — there is no -th- sound in French, just -t-.) Which tuna should I buy? Because I grew up on the coast of North Carolina, I'm familiar with several different kinds of tuna that swim in the oceans: bluefin tuna, albacore tuna, bonito, skipjack tuna, yellowfin tuna... Some are true tunas, in the genus Thunnus, and others aren't, but all are closely related. What do those correspond to in France?

So I looked up thon germon and learned that it is also called thon blanc. It's considered the most delicate, best-tasting tuna variety. So what species is "white tuna" then? It's Thunnus alalunga. Now, I happened to know already that what we call "bluefin" tuna is called thon rouge in French. That's already confusing. I guess it's called that because the bluefin's raw flesh has a red color. The Atlantic bluefin is Thunnus thynnus. It turns out that there is also a Pacific bluefin species called Thunnus orientalis. Specialists used to think the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins were the same species, but they're not. Never mind...

Another common variety of tunas, in my experience, is the albacore or "longfin" tuna. It is sold in tins in the U.S. and in France. That seems simple enough, doesn't it? I looked up albacore in French sources and found that it's a species called Thunnus albacares — alba means "white" in Latin, and cares comes from the word for flesh (think carne, carniverous, carnage, etc.). According to Wikipedia, albacore was "originally the basis for the U.S. tuna-canning industry." (Au naturel on the label means packed in water.)

Well, guess what. When I looked up "albacore" in English, I learned that it is not Thunnus albacares in the U.S., but Thunnus alalunga. The Latin term alalunga must mean aile longue, or "long wing" — longfin, the other English name for albacore. Thunnus albacares in France is called albacore, but we call it yellowfin tuna in the English-speaking world. So albacore in French is not the same fish as albacore in English. In English, the albacore tuna is Thunnus alalunga, known commercially in France as thon germon or thon blanc. Is that clear?

The lesson: never assume that a word in French that looks exactly like an English word will actually have the same meaning. For example, "actual" or "actually" don't mean at all the same thing as French actuel and actuellement.

Yesterday, we opened a can of French thon blanc (called albacore in the U.S.) and a can of French albacore. I always thought there was something different about the canned tuna called albacore in France and the canned tuna called "albacore" in the United States. The U.S. albacore is a whiter flesh; the French albacore has a pinkish color. We mixed the Thunnus alalunga and the Thunnus albacares together — both were good — and made a big batch of tuna salad. So, what is the other tuna variety I see in tins in France, le thon listao? I believe it is what we call skipjack tuna, a variety of bonito. I'll try to figure that out later. Another taste test is on the agenda