Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A family of Native American languages of the northwest United States and British Columbia.
  • noun The group of Native American peoples speaking languages of the Salish family.
  • noun The Flathead people.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun an indigenous group in Montana, the Bitterroot Salish, whose name was extended by linguists to refer to all related languages and peoples
  • proper noun an adjective referring to one of two groups of indigenous peoples peoples of the Pacific Northwest, a region spanning the northwestern United States and British Columbia
  • proper noun a member of one of these groups
  • proper noun the family of languages of these people, which is subdivided into Coast Salish and Interior Salish

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a family of Mosan language spoken in northwestern United States and western Canada
  • noun a member of a group of North American Indians speaking a Salishan language and living on the northwest coast of North America

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Southern Interior Salish se'lish, Flatheads.]

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Examples

  • Some linguistic sources attribute it to an alteration of cohose from a Pacific Northwest Native American language, Halkomelem, which is part of a group of languages known as Salish from southwestern British Columbia.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • Some linguistic sources attribute it to an alteration of cohose from a Pacific Northwest Native American language, Halkomelem, which is part of a group of languages known as Salish from southwestern British Columbia.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • Some linguistic sources attribute it to an alteration of cohose from a Pacific Northwest Native American language, Halkomelem, which is part of a group of languages known as Salish from southwestern British Columbia.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • Some linguistic sources attribute it to an alteration of cohose from a Pacific Northwest Native American language, Halkomelem, which is part of a group of languages known as Salish from southwestern British Columbia.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • They call themselves in their beautiful tongue, "Salish," and speak a language remarkable for its sweetness and simplicity.

    Life in the Rocky Mountains 1844

  • On the Flathead Indian Reservation in Pablo, Mont., Salish Kootenai College decided that its largely older student population had a lot of remediation to offer among its own ranks, so the school set up group peer mentorship, said Noel Harmon, a senior program manager for the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a nonprofit that helps low income, minority and other historically underrepresented groups gain access to postsecondary schooling.

    New ways to tackle college readiness 2011

  • McCaskill's impending legislation will be a blow to Cherokee, Choctaw, Navajo, Salish and Kootenai, Forest County Potawotami, and other tribal businesses, said Morgan.

    Stephanie Woodard: The New Indian Fighters: Lt. Col. McCaskill and Major WaPo Stephanie Woodard 2010

  • For almost three decades I've lived here in Seattle on the Salish Sea and my apartment is like a glassed in aquarium.

    Brenda Peterson: The Water Way and the Tsunami Brenda Peterson 2011

  • Like us, seals and sea lions in our Salish Sea must also reckon with increasing development, pollution, overfishing, and global warming.

    Brenda Peterson: Who's Shooting Sea Lions? How We Scapegoat Animals Brenda Peterson 2012

  • For those of us who live near Puget Sound -- known locally as the Salish Sea -- these murdered sea lions and seals are a loss in a wider kinship and ecosystem.

    Brenda Peterson: Who's Shooting Sea Lions? How We Scapegoat Animals Brenda Peterson 2012

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