Word of the Week: losos – ‘salmon’

Losos is the Czech name for the salmon fish, which, unhelpfully for learners, looks nothing like English salmon. The Czech word, however, is part of a big and ancient family of words, some members of which English speakers may know.

There are word ‘cousins’ of losos in the Germanic languages, like Swedish. In Sweden, a salmon is a lax. This word we find at the end of the food gravlax, salmon dry-cured in salt. English also has this word lax for ‘salmon’, although it’s rarely used nowadays.

In Yiddish, another Germanic language, salmon is likewise laks. Through the Yiddish-speaking Jewish population in the USA, you can today go to New York and order a lox bagel. What you’ll receive is a bagel with salmon fillet, and to get it, you will have used a word for ‘salmon’ distantly related to Czech losos.