ALBACORE
s. A kind of rather large sea-fish, of the Tunny genus ( Thynnus albacora , Lowe, perhaps the same as Thynnus macropterus , Day); from the Port. albacor or albecora . The quotations from Ovington and Grose below refer it to albo , but the word is, from its form, almost certainly Arabic, though Dozy says he has not found the word in this sense in Arabic dictionaries, which are very defective in the names of fishes (p. 61). The word albacora in Sp. is applied to a large early kind of fig, from Ar. al-bākūr , 'praecox' (Dozy), Heb. bikkūra , in Micah vii. 1.—See Cobarruvias , s.v. Albacora . [The N.E.D. derives it from Ar. al-bukr , 'a young camel, a heifer,' whence Port. bacoro , 'a young pig.' Also see Gray's note on Pyrard , i. 9.]
Historical Citations (4)
"These (flying fish) have two enemies, the one in the sea, the other in the aire. In the sea the fish which is called Albocore, as big as a salmon."—Letter from Goa, by T. Stevens, in Hakl. ii. 583.
"In our passage over from S. Laurence to the maine, we had exceeding great store of Bonitos and Albocores."—Barker, in Hakl. ii. 592.
"We met likewise with shoals of Albicores (so call'd from a piece of white Flesh that sticks to their Heart) and with multitudes of Bonettoes, which are named from their Goodness and Excellence for eating; so that sometimes for more than twenty Days the whole Ship's Company have feasted on these curious fish."—Ovington, p. 48.
"The Albacore is another fish of much the same kind as the Bonito ... from 60 to 90 pounds weight and upward. The name of this fish too is taken from the Portuguese, importing its white colour."—Grose, i. 5.
From Hobson-Jobson by Yule & Burnell, 1886.