Thursday word: anadromous

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

anadromous (uh-NAD-ruh-muhs) - adj., (of fish) migrating from salt water to fresh water to spawn.


For example, salmon. Also shads, steelheads, sea lampreys, and so on. Compare catadromous, which is living in fresh water but going to salt water to spawn, as certain eels. There are also amphidromous fish. Coined around 1750 from Greek anádromos, running upward, from aná-, up + drómos, running (the same root as in hippodrome, a horse racetrack).

The anadromous Arctic char of northern Canada may be quite literally the strongest fish that swims.

---L.

Comments

[med_cat]

Interesting, thanks; I didn't know there was a word for this phenomenon.