ETYM Old Eng. saumoun, salmon, French saumon, from Latin salmo, salmonis, perhaps from salire to leap. Related to Sally.
1. Any of various large food and game fishes of northern waters; usually migrate from salt to fresh water to spawn.
2. Flesh of any of various marine or freshwater fish of the family Salmonidae.
Any of the various bony fishes of the family Salmonidae. More specifically the name is applied to several species of game fishes of the genera Salmo and Oncorhynchus of North America and Eurasia that mature in the ocean but, to spawn, return to the freshwater streams where they were born. Their normal color is silvery with a few dark spots, but the color changes at the spawning season.
The spawning season is between Sept and Jan, although they occasionally spawn at other times. The orange eggs, about 6 mm/0.25 in in diameter, are laid on the river bed, fertilized by the male, and then covered with gravel by the female. The incubation period is from five weeks to five months. The young hatched fish are known as alevins, and when they begin feeding they are called parr. At about two years old, the coat becomes silvery, and they are then smolts. Depending on the species, they may spend up to four years at sea before returning to their home streams to spawn (at this stage called grilse), often overcoming great obstacles to get there and die.
Salmon are increasingly “farmed” in cages, and “ranched” (selectively bred, hatched, and fed before release to the sea). Stocking rivers indiscriminately with hatchery fish may destroy the precision of their homing instinct by interbreeding between those originating in different rivers.

1. A tributary of the Snake River; Also called: Salmon River.
2. City in Idaho (USA); zip code 83467.