01 January 2008

Tunis revisited












Tunisians eat a lot of tuna, but the etymology of the name is unrelated, Tunisia gets it's name from the ancient Tynes of the Punic era. However there may still be an etymological connection. I think tuna originally comes from an Arabic word borrowed by the Spanish as atĂșn. Another possible connection has to do with one of Tunisia's famous products, olives, the Arabic word for which is az-zaytun. Still it's very unlikely that either of these Arabic words has its origin in the ancient Punic name.

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