Or, navy blue. It's navy. We already know it's a shade of blue.
Or people who have a baby, and say they had a little baby boy or a little baby girl. They had a boy or a girl. Of course it's little. And of course it's a baby.
This reminds me a bit of a funny encounter years ago.. I was in a sub shop and this woman and her five year old son came up to the counter. The cashier puts down a sub and the little boy reaches up to take it. He says, Is this tuna? And she replies, Yes. And he says, 'ok it's not fish, just tuna? ' and the mom now quickly says, "Yes it's not fish just tuna" ...and he grabs it with a satisfied look.
The term "tuna fish" is an American thing. Where the term originated was in south America where a pear-like fruit is grown that is called "tuna". It looks like a pear with little prickles all over it's outside skin surface.
The term "tuna fish" was then adopted to distinguish the difference between tuna-the-fruit versus tuna-the-fish.
If an American was referring to the fruit, they'd just say "tuna" and if they were referring to the fish, they'd say "tuna fish".
My ex-wife used to drive me crazy. If she wanted to write something, she would ask for an "ink pen." #1 all pens are ink pens. #2 if you didn't want a pen, it would be a pencil.
No. We say tuna fish because that’s what we’ve called it since we learned to talk. And later we got tired of saying “tuna” and being asked ‘what’s that?’
We also say “tin foil” instead of “aluminum.”
The entire world does not live on or near an ocean. I do not recall the first time I actually SAW a tuna before it was cut up and processed for consumption but it was probably my late teens or twenties. When I was little I thought they were small round fish that lived in - wait for it - tin cans, like little industrial crustaceans.
Don’t worry. Soon we’ll all look and talk and act the same. The world will have no charming dialects, no traditions, no ethnic dress. Everybody will leave the “fish” off of tuna fish.
I wonder what flexing will look like then? “This family does NOT say ‘tuna fish!”