salpa

[ sal-puh ]

noun

, plural sal·pas, sal·pae [sal, -pee].

1. any free-swimming, oceanic tunicate of the genus Salpa, having a transparent, more or less fusiform body.

salpa

/ ˈsælpə; ˈsælpɪˌfɔːm /

noun

1. any of various minute floating animals of the genus Salpa, of warm oceans, having a transparent barrel-shaped body with openings at either end: class Thaliacea, subphylum Tunicata (tunicates)

Derived Forms

• salpiform, adjective

Other Words From

• sal·pi·form [sal, -p, uh, -fawrm], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of salpa¹

1510–20; < New Latin, special use of Latin salpa < Greek sálpē kind of fish

Word History and Origins

Origin of salpa¹

C19: from New Latin, from Latin: variety of stockfish, from Greek salpē

Example Sentences

He pulled up his fishing nets filled with yellow-streaked Salpa, striped red mullet, shellfish, a gray triggerfish, seabream and amberjack.

From New York Times

Salpa, sal′pa, n. a remarkable genus of free-swimming Tunicates.—adjs.

From Project Gutenberg

On the west side of the Arun, again, the Kirat places Syamphelang as the highest ridge of snowy mountains, and he seemed to think, that the very highest peak visible, and bearing about N. by W. from Nathpur, was part of this mountain connected with this, but leaving between them the valley watered by the Tarun, is another snowy mountain, which the Kirat calls Meyangma, but which the slave who constructed the map calls Salpa pahar.

From Project Gutenberg

For while in the Salpæ the component individuals adhere so slightly that a blow on the vessel of water in which they are floating will separate them; in the Botryllidæ there exist vascular connexions among them, and a common circulation.

From Project Gutenberg

Secondly, a Salpa, of the class which lives apart and has fine long fibres projecting from the hinder part of the body.

From Project Gutenberg