Salmon

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: Salm=on

CIDE DICTIONARY

Salmon, n. [OE. saumoun, salmon, F. saumon, fr. L. salmo, salmonis, perhaps from salire to leap. Cf. Sally, v.].

•  Any one of several species of fishes of the genus Salmo and allied genera. The common salmon (Salmo salar) of Northern Europe and Eastern North America, and the California salmon, or quinnat, are the most important species. They are extensively preserved for food. See Quinnat.  [1913 Webster]

  " The salmons ascend rivers and penetrate to their head streams to spawn. They are remarkably strong fishes, and will even leap over considerable falls which lie in the way of their progress. The common salmon has been known to grow to the weight of seventy-five pounds; more generally it is from fifteen to twenty-five pounds. Young salmon are called parr, peal, smolt, and grilse."  [1913 Webster]

  " Among fishes of other families which are locally and erroneously called salmon are: the pike perch, called jack salmon; the spotted, or southern, squeteague; the cabrilla, called kelp salmon; young pollock, called sea salmon; and the California yellowtail."  [1913 Webster]
•  A reddish yellow or orange color, like the flesh of the salmon.  [1913 Webster]

Salmon berry (Bot.), a large red raspberry growing from Alaska to California, the fruit of the Rubus Nutkanus. -- Salmon killer (Zoöl.), a stickleback (Gasterosteus cataphractus) of Western North America and Northern Asia. -- Salmon ladder, Salmon stair. See Fish ladder, under Fish. -- Salmon peel, a young salmon. -- Salmon pipe, a certain device for catching salmon. Crabb. -- Salmon trout. (Zoöl.) (a) The European sea trout (Salmo trutta). It resembles the salmon, but is smaller, and has smaller and more numerous scales. (b) The American namaycush. (c) A name that is also applied locally to the adult black spotted trout (Salmo purpuratus), and to the steel head and other large trout of the Pacific coast.

Salmon, a. 

 Of a reddish yellow or orange color, like that of the flesh of the salmon.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Salmon, n. & adj.
--n. (pl. same or (esp. of types) salmons)
1 any anadromous fish of the family Salmonidae, esp. of the genus Salmo, much prized for its (often smoked) pink flesh.
2 Austral. & NZ the barramundi or a similar fish.
--adj. salmon-pink.

Idiom

salmon-ladder (or -leap) a series of steps or other arrangement incorporated in a dam to allow salmon to pass upstream. salmon-pink the colour of salmon flesh. salmon trout a large silver-coloured trout, Salmo trutta.

Derivative

salmonoid adj. & n. (in sense 1). salmony adj.

Etymology

ME f. AF sa(u)moun, OF saumon f. L salmo -onis

THESAURUS

Salmon

Loch Ness monster, alevin, benthon, benthos, broad jumper, bucking bronco, buckjumper, cetacean, coral, dolphin, fingerling, fish, flea, frog, fry, game fish, gazelle, goat, grasshopper, grilse, high jumper, hopper, hurdle racer, hurdler, incarnadine, jackrabbit, jumper, jumping bean, jumping jack, kangaroo, kipper, leaper, man-eater, man-eating shark, marine animal, minnow, minny, nekton, panfish, pink, pinkish, pinky, plankton, pole vaulter, porpoise, primrose, rose, rose-colored, rose-hued, rose-red, roseate, rosy, sea monster, sea pig, sea serpent, sea snake, shark, smolt, sponge, stag, sunfisher, timber topper, tropical fish, vaulter, whale