parr

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} Etymonline and Weekley note that it was at first a Scottish word,^[3][10] and the OED marks the salmon sense as originally Scottish.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young salmon: about 1720, in Scottish use, according to Etymonline.^[3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1705–15,^[11] and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the early 18th century.^[12] The OED's first quotation for the salmon sense is from Smollett's Humphry Clinker (1771).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Until the early 19th century the parr was thought to be a fish of its own species, not a young salmon.^[3][2] The OED, revised in 2005, also records a Yorkshire use for a young saithe, from 1769, in Pennant's British Zoology, to 1832.^[2] The word was later extended to the young of trout and of some other fishes,^[7][8][13] and the dark patches along the sides of a young salmon are called parr marks.^[8][7]

Timeline

• c. 1720 – a young salmon, in Scottish use.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from 1771, in Smollett.^[2]
• 1769 – in Yorkshire, a young saithe (obsolete by 1832).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young salmon in the stage between fry and smolt, when it feeds in fresh water and has dark parr marks along its sides.^[7][9][2][8]
2. The young of some other fishes, especially the trout: a trout parr.^[7][8][13]

Usage notes

The plural is parr or parrs.^[7][9] The OED records a noun parr meaning a young leveret, also of unknown origin, only from Halliwell's dictionary of archaic and provincial words (1847).^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers