Etymology

salmon

S1A1L1M3O1N1

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Middle English samoun ← Anglo-Norman saumon ← Old French saumon
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salmon · noun, adjective, verb1

  1. Latin · derived fromsalmō, salmōn-
  2. Old French · derived fromsaumon
  3. Anglo-Norman · derived fromsaumon
  4. Middle English · inherited fromsamoun
  5. English todaysalmon

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.

Salmon · proper noun2

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

Salmon · proper noun3

  1. Hebrew · borrowed fromשַׂלְמוֹן
  2. English todaySalmon

From Hebrew שַׂלְמוֹן (salmown).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.