Name and etymology

The Modern English term salmon is derived from , samon and saumon, which in turn are from Anglo-Norman: saumon, from , and from (which in turn might have originated from salire, meaning "to leap".). The unpronounced "l" absent from Middle English was later added as a Latinisation to make the word closer to its Latin root. The term salmon has mostly displaced its now dialectal synonym lax, in turn from , from , from from