albacoren.

Etymology: Probably < Portuguese †albaquora (16th cent.), †albecora (1563 or earlier; also 1712 as †albacor; now albacora (1712)), further etymology unknown. Compare Italian †albacora (a1525 in A. Pigafetta Relazione del primo viaggio attorno al mondo, the journal of Pigafetta's voyage aboard Magellan's ships, or earlier), also †albucora (a1588); apparently either < Portuguese or perhaps < Spanish (although this is apparently first attested slightly later), as Pigafetta's account contains many Spanish borrowings. Compare also Spanish albacora (a1557; also †albicora (c1618)) and Middle French, French albacore (c1525 in a translation of Pigafetta; also †albocore (1598 or earlier), †albicore (1663 or earlier, apparently first in a translation of an English source; < Italian). Compare Dutch albikoor (1622 as †albecore; < either Spanish or Portuguese). Some English forms may show borrowings from these languages.Ulterior etymology of the fish name. It has often been suggested that the names of the fish in European languages are ultimately < Arabic al the + a supposed Moroccan Arabic noun bakūra in sense ‘young bonito’. However, the apparently sole example of this supposed Arabic noun is cited by R. P. A. Dozy Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes (1881) from the writings of a 19th-cent. Spanish missionary to Morocco, who probably knew the word before he left Spain; independent evidence for the Arabic noun is lacking. Various other Arabic etymons have also been suggested, e.g. bākūr ‘early or unripe fruit’, bukr ‘young camel’, the fish allegedly being so called because it is caught early in the fishing season, or on account of its large size. However, there is no evidence to support any of these suggestions. It is possible that the search for an Arabic etymon may merely have been prompted by the initial al- of the fish name in the various European languages. Alternatively, some etymological dictionaries of Portuguese suggest a derivation < post-classical Latin albicolor white in colour (6th cent.; < classical Latin albi- , combining form of albus white (see album n.²) + color colour n.¹ However, this may reflect a later rationalization, on account of the white skin of the fish's belly. Compare the following 16th-cent. comment on the motivation of the Portuguese name:1598 tr. C. Houtman & W. Lodewijcksz Premier livre de l'histoire de la navigation aux Indes Orientales xiv. f. 15 Quant aux Albocores, cest a dire, Poisson avec la peau blanche, qui n'a pas d'escailles, comme n'a aussi le Bonite; mais la peau glissante, & le ventre fort blanc, lequel on voit de loing reluire soubz l'eaue: & combien qu'il sont entierement semblables au Bonite, different toutesfois de grandeur. [Regarding the albacore, this means ‘white-skinned fish’, which, like the bonito, does not have scales; its skin is smooth, and its belly very white, so that it can be seen reflecting the light under water from a long distance. They are very similar to the bonito, but differ in size.] Transmission of the word into English. The source cited in quot. 1579 at sense 1 is a letter written by Thomas Stevens from Goa in India; the word appears in the context of Stevens's voyage from Lisbon to Goa on a Portuguese ship. In quot. 1696 at sense 1, the word again occurs in an Atlantic setting, in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands, then a Portuguese colony. Compare also the following earlier attestation of the French parallel in an English context:1568 T. Hacket tr. A. Thevet New Found Worlde lxix. f. cxi^v There is another fish, which is called by them [sc. the Spanish in America] Albacore [Fr. albacore], much more greater than the Porpas, the which is also a deuourer of the flying fish as wel as the Dorade, and he is very good and excellent to eate aboue all other fishes in the sea, as well of the Weast as of the Easte.