First Known Use: 1869
Dictionary
sockeye salmon
noun sock·eye salmon \ˈsäk-ˌī-\
Definition of SOCKEYE SALMON
: a commercially important Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) that is greenish blue above and silvery below when sexually immature and turns red with a greenish head when ascending rivers to spawn which it does chiefly from the Columbia northward —called also red salmon, sockeye — compare kokanee
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Origin of SOCKEYE SALMON
by folk etymology from Northern Straits (Salishan language of southern Vancouver Island and nearby islands) sə́qəy̓
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