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salmon

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L340106 on Wikidata ↗

noun

  1. type of fish
  2. food
L41992 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈsæmən/ / /ˈsælmən/ / /ˈsɑmən/

adj

Etymology: 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.

  1. Having a pale pinkish-orange colour.

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

name

Etymology: From Hebrew שַׂלְמוֹן (salmown).

  1. The father of Boaz by Rahab; the son of Nahshon (biblical figure).

noun

Etymology: 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.

  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.

    grilled salmon

    salmon paté

  2. A meal or dish made from this fish.
  3. A pale pinkish-orange colour, the colour of cooked salmon.
  4. The upper bricks in a kiln which receive the least heat.
  5. snout (tobacco; from salmon and trout)

    Got any salmon?

  6. canned fish, usually mackerel.

    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.

    With a thick gravy made up of onions, tomatoes, spices, and coconut milk this Sri Lankan salmon curry might breathe new life to those canned mackerels on your shelf.

verb

Etymology: 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.

  1. To ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street.

    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."