A Netful of Salmon

In Seashores of the Maritimes by Merritt Gibson, my on-shelf reference book for plants and birds that I see outside my windows, I discovered a trove of words relating to Atlantic salmon. These salmon are classified as Salmo salar in binomial nomenclature; salmō, salmōnis m. is the Latin noun for “salmon,” and salar is an adjective meaning “leaping, jumping,” from the Latin verb saliō, salīre, saluī, saltum “I leap, spring.” All of these salmon words have great crossword-puzzle or Free-Rice potential, beginning with redd (origin unknown, “a hollow in gravel dug by a female salmon”). Then the male and female deposit milt (originally “spleen,” but here “roe/fish eggs and fish sperm”) into the redd, and having spawned are called kelts (origin unknown). The young salmon are called parr (origin unknown), and develop into smolts (of doubtful origin). Salmon that have been to sea for one year are called grilse (of unknown origin). Probably there are other terms in the salmon world, but these are the ones that swam into my reading today. One final note: Seashores of the Maritimes is published by Nimbus Publishing Ltd. in Halifax, Nova Scotia; nimbus, nimbī m. is a Latin noun that means “cloud, rain, storm.”