noun Etymology: by folk etymology from Northern Straits (Salishan language of southern Vancouver Island and nearby islands) sə́qəy̓ a commercially important Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) that is greenish blue above and silvery below when sexually immature and turns red with a greenish head when ascending rivers to spawn which it does chiefly from the Columbia northward — called also red salmon, sockeye — compare kokanee