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sockeye salmon

[sok-ahy]
noun
  1. an important food fish, Oncorhynchus nerka, inhabiting the North Pacific.
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Origin of sockeye salmon

1865–70; sockeye, alteration (by folk etymology) of Halkomelem (Mainland dial.) sθə́qəỷ
Also called blueback salmon, red salmon, sock·eye.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sockeye

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • And the Fraser River canneries wonder why sockeye is getting scarce.

    Poor Man's Rock

    Bertrand W. Sinclair

  • But the number one grades, sockeye and blueback and coho, are short.

    Poor Man's Rock

    Bertrand W. Sinclair

  • With the opening of the sockeye season on the Fraser and in the north the Japs abandoned trolling for the gill net.

    Poor Man's Rock

    Bertrand W. Sinclair

  • Sockeye, the finest canning salmon that swims in the sea, is bringing eighty cents on the Fraser.

    Poor Man's Rock

    Bertrand W. Sinclair

  • This is the sockeye run, which is always very large, but varies in different years, every fourth year being an extra large one.

    Fishing in British Columbia

    Thomas Wilson Lambert

British Dictionary definitions for sockeye

sockeye

noun
  1. a Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, having red flesh and valued as a food fishAlso called: red salmon
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Word Origin

by folk etymology from Salishan sukkegh
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012