salp

From French salpe, from Ancient Greek σᾰ́λπη (sálpē, “porgy”).

salp (plural salps)

1. Any of the free-swimming tunicates of the order Salpida and its single family Salpidae.
   • 1996, Marty Snyderman, Clay Wiseman, Guide to Marine Life: Caribbean, Bahamas, Florida, page 132:

     Salps are capable of self-propulsion, but for the most part, these translucent, gelatinous-looking animals float in mid-water going wherever the prevailing currents take them. […] At times a number of buds are attached to one another in linked chains commonly called salp chains.

   • 1997, L. P. Madin, Sensory Ecology of Salps (Tunicata, Thaliacea): More Questions than Answers, Petra H. Lenz, Daniel K. Hartline, Jennifer E. Purcell, David L. Macmillan (editors), Zooplankton: Sensory Ecology and Physiology, Gordon and Breach Publishers, page 565,

     Observations of some species suggest that salps form spawning aggregations near the surface in the early morning, and that spawning is synchronized with chain release to maximize fertilization success.

   • 2012, Claus Nielsen, Animal Evolution: Interrelationships of the Living Phyla, Oxford University Press, page 55:

     Lampetia has a rather undifferentiated larval stage (called Gastrodes) that parasitizes salps (Mortensen 1912; Komai 1922).

• salpa

• ALPs, APLS, APLs, ASPL, Alps, PALS, PALs, PLAs, Pals, Plas, SPLA, alps, laps, pals, slap

Ultimately from Latin salpa (“stockfish”), from Ancient Greek σάλπη (sálpē, “a species of fish”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• IPA^(key): /sɑlp/
• Hyphenation: salp
• Rhymes: -ɑlp

salp f (plural salpen, diminutive salpje n)

1. salp, any member of the class Thaliacea

• salpenketen