saltchuck

See also: salt chuck

English

Alternative forms

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, Northwestern US) Any body of saltwater, especially the ocean.
    • 2002, Harvey Manning, 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. John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “saltchuck”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
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