salmon
A large fish of the family Salmonidae, known for swimming upstream to spawn.
Etymology
From Old English leax, from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz, from PIE *lóksos meaning "salmon, trout." English later adopted the Latin-derived form "salmon" from Old French saumun (from Latin salmō), but the native Germanic word survives in Scots/dialect "lax" and in German Lachs.
The Journey: *lóksos → salmon
*lóksos
*lahsaz
leax
saumun
salmon
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *lóksos. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Latin | salmō |
| Russian | лосось (losós) |
| Old Norse | lax |
| Lithuanian | lašišà |
| Tocharian B | laks |
| Old High German | lahs |
Did You Know?
The silent "l" in salmon was reinserted by scribes trying to match the Latin spelling salmō, even though English borrowed the word through French without the "l" sound.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *lóksos. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.