Salmon

//ˈsæmən// adj, name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having a pale pinkish-orange colour. not-comparable

    "Smiley and Guillam perched disconsolately beneath it, on a bench of salmon velvet."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of orange tinged with pink wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    The father of Boaz by Rahab; the son of Nahshon (biblical figure).
  3. 3
    A placename; A city, the county seat of Lemhi County, Idaho, United States, situated on the Salmon River, after which it was probably named. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    A placename; Ellipsis of Salmon River. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
Noun
  1. 1
    One of several species of fish, typically of the Salmoninae subfamily, brownish above with silvery sides and delicate pinkish-orange flesh; they ascend rivers to spawn. countable, uncountable

    "grilled salmon"

  2. 2
    any of various large food and game fishes of northern waters; usually migrate from salt to fresh water to spawn wordnet
  3. 3
    A meal or dish made from this fish. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a pale pinkish orange color wordnet
  5. 5
    A pale pinkish-orange colour, the colour of cooked salmon. countable, uncountable
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    flesh of any of various marine or freshwater fish of the family Salmonidae wordnet
  2. 7
    The upper bricks in a kiln which receive the least heat. countable, uncountable
  3. 8
    snout (tobacco; from salmon and trout) Cockney, countable, slang, uncountable

    "Got any salmon?"

  4. 9
    canned fish, usually mackerel. Sri-Lanka, countable, uncountable

    "Tinned mackerel is confusingly called ‘salmon’ in Sri Lanka. So this dish, in Sinhalese, is salmon hodi, or salmon in gravy. Now that I think on it, all tinned fish in Sri Lanka is called salmon."

Verb
  1. 1
    To ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street. intransitive, slang

    "2014: "Salmon, Don't Shoal: Learning The Lingo Of Safe Cycling" by Marc Silver, NPR Some cities discourage salmoning with clever signage, like this in London: "If you can read this you are biking the wrong way.""

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English samoun, samon, saumon, from Anglo-Norman saumon, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-. Widely displaced native Middle English lax, from Old English leax (whence modern dialectal lax). The unpronounced l was later inserted to make the word appear closer to its Latin root (compare words like debt, indict, receipt for the same spelling Latinizations). The verb sense “ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street” alludes to salmon swimming upstream against the flow of a river to spawn.

Etymology 2

From Middle English samoun, samon, saumon, from Anglo-Norman saumon, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-. Widely displaced native Middle English lax, from Old English leax (whence modern dialectal lax). The unpronounced l was later inserted to make the word appear closer to its Latin root (compare words like debt, indict, receipt for the same spelling Latinizations). The verb sense “ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street” alludes to salmon swimming upstream against the flow of a river to spawn.

Etymology 3

From Middle English samoun, samon, saumon, from Anglo-Norman saumon, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-. Widely displaced native Middle English lax, from Old English leax (whence modern dialectal lax). The unpronounced l was later inserted to make the word appear closer to its Latin root (compare words like debt, indict, receipt for the same spelling Latinizations). The verb sense “ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street” alludes to salmon swimming upstream against the flow of a river to spawn.

Etymology 4

* (Idaho, river): named after the fish, salmon

Etymology 5

From Hebrew שַׂלְמוֹן (salmown).

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