Illustration of albacore
albacore
noun
al·ba·core ˈal-bə-ˌkȯr 
plural albacore or albacores
: a large pelagic tuna (Thunnus alalunga) with long pectoral fins that is a source of canned tuna
broadly : any of various tunas (such as a bonito)
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web A mere 30 seconds in hot oil transforms rare albacore breaded in panko into a delightfully crunchy bite. 
Sunset Magazine, 21 Apr. 2022 For the sashimi combo, salmon, yellowtail, tuna and albacore are sliced into fat, generous pieces. Andi Berlin, The Arizona Republic, 14 Jan. 2022 Nine Moa Kai sliders with white albacore tuna salad and fixings, and a side of chips and salsa, for $18.99; and a Northshore taco meal, including spicy chicken, 10 flour tortillas and all the fixings, with chips and salsa, for $29.99. San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 June 2021 The items were — and still are — less expensive but still contain the same fresh cuts of albacore, salmon, eel, yellowtail or escolar. Kathy Stephenson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 Apr. 2021 Sea Forager’s halibut, oysters and albacore tuna are fished or harvested sustainably, mostly from Bay Area fishermen. Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Mar. 2021 Many of these sandwiches can trace their origins to two famous golden arches, but their creators have expanded the fried fish ecosphere to include Pacific striped bass, cod, sushi-grade albacore tuna and tilapia. Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2021 Ogg ventures out in his boat, the Karen Jeanne, to fish for salmon, albacore, black cod, and dungeness crab in the Pacific. Rob Verger, Popular Science, 8 Jan. 2021 After orders from chefs suddenly dropped to zero, the high-end seafood purveyor started offering home delivery of local salmon, halibut, sablefish and albacore to retail customers. Tara Duggan, SFChronicle.com, 17 Sep. 2020 See More
Sunset Magazine, 21 Apr. 2022 For the sashimi combo, salmon, yellowtail, tuna and albacore are sliced into fat, generous pieces. Andi Berlin, The Arizona Republic, 14 Jan. 2022 Nine Moa Kai sliders with white albacore tuna salad and fixings, and a side of chips and salsa, for $18.99; and a Northshore taco meal, including spicy chicken, 10 flour tortillas and all the fixings, with chips and salsa, for $29.99. San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 June 2021 The items were — and still are — less expensive but still contain the same fresh cuts of albacore, salmon, eel, yellowtail or escolar. Kathy Stephenson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 Apr. 2021 Sea Forager’s halibut, oysters and albacore tuna are fished or harvested sustainably, mostly from Bay Area fishermen. Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Mar. 2021 Many of these sandwiches can trace their origins to two famous golden arches, but their creators have expanded the fried fish ecosphere to include Pacific striped bass, cod, sushi-grade albacore tuna and tilapia. Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2021 Ogg ventures out in his boat, the Karen Jeanne, to fish for salmon, albacore, black cod, and dungeness crab in the Pacific. Rob Verger, Popular Science, 8 Jan. 2021 After orders from chefs suddenly dropped to zero, the high-end seafood purveyor started offering home delivery of local salmon, halibut, sablefish and albacore to retail customers. Tara Duggan, SFChronicle.com, 17 Sep. 2020 See More Word History
Etymology
probably borrowed from 16th-century Portuguese albaquora, albecora, of obscure origin
Note: Traditionally Portuguese and Spanish albacora and its Romance congeners have been taken as loans from an Arabic collocation al-bakūra "the albacore." The fish word would supposedly be derived from the Arabic root b-k-r, seen in bikr "first-born," bakr "young camel," on the assumption that it originally alluded to young tuna. As noted in the Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, the existence of such a word for the fish in Arabic, recorded only by a Spanish-speaking missionary to Morocco in the nineteenth century, is questionable. Oxford takes the earliest attestation of albacora in Romance to be Italian albacore (plural) in Antonio Pigafetta's Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo, dated "ante 1525"; note, however, that this word is apparently only attested in a single manuscript of the Relazione (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, L 103 sup.), of uncertain date and relation to Pigafetta's original text, which has not survived. For further etymological speculation see the Oxford English Dictionary.
First Known Use
1579, in the meaning defined above