saltchuck

saltchuck

See also: salt chuck

English

Alternative forms

• salt chuck

Etymology

Borrowed from Chinook Jargon saltchuck (“the sea”, literally “saltwater”), from salt (“salt”) (from English salt) + chuck (“water”) from Nootka č̕aʔak (“water”).[1]

Noun

saltchuck (plural saltchucks)

1. (British Columbia, Washington, Pacific Northwest) Any body of saltwater, especially the ocean.
   • 2002, Harvey and Penny Manning, Ira Spring, Winter Walks and Hikes: Puget Sound, page 155:

     The ultimate consensus was to keep the de-Whited river Green to its Tukwila junction with the Black, the outlet of Lake Washington, then make it Duwamish the rest of the way to the saltchuck.

   • 2011, Betty Keller, Rosella Leslie, Bright Seas, Pioneer Spirits: A History of the Sunshine Coast, page 130:

     Trucks disappeared over precipices, rail cars were shunted into the saltchuck, and donkey engines collapsed from old age. […] However, if it was abandoned anywhere near the saltchuck, it was probably picked up by one of the entrepreneurs […]

Derived terms

• chuck (in its sense "body of water")

References

1. “saltchuck” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.