salmon









salmon


noun, plural salm·ons, (especially collectively) salm·on for 1–3.

  1. a marine and freshwater food fish, Salmo salar, of the family Salmonidae, having pink flesh, inhabiting waters off the North Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America near the mouths of large rivers, which it enters to spawn.
  2. landlocked salmon.
  3. any of several salmonoid food fishes of the genus Oncorhynchus, inhabiting the North Pacific.
  4. a light yellowish-pink.

adjective

  1. of the color salmon.

noun plural -ons or -on

  1. any soft-finned fish of the family Salmonidae, esp Salmo salar of the Atlantic and Oncorhynchus species (sockeye, Chinook, etc) of the Pacific, which are important food fishes. They occur in cold and temperate waters and many species migrate to fresh water to spawn
  2. Australian any of several unrelated fish, esp the Australian salmon
  3. short for salmon pink

n.early 13c., from Anglo-French samoun, Old French salmun (Modern French saumon), from Latin salmonem (nominative salmo) “a salmon,” probably originally “leaper,” from salire “to leap” (see salient (adj.)), though some dismiss this as folk etymology. Another theory traces it to Celtic. Replaced Old English læx, from PIE *lax, the more usual word for the fish (see lox). In reference to a color, from 1786.

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