elk
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English elk, from Old English eolc, eolh (“elk”), from Proto-Germanic *elhaz, *algiz (“elk”) (compare Low German Elk, German Elch, Danish elg, Norwegian elg, Swedish älg), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁élḱis, *h₁ólḱis (compare Polish łoś, Russian лось (losʹ), Vedic Sanskrit ऋश्य (ṛ́śya, “antelope”), variant of *h₁elh₁én (compare German Elen, Tocharian A yäl, Tocharian B ylem (“gazelle”), Lithuanian élnis (“stag”), Armenian եղնիկ (eġnik, “doe, hind”)), from *h₁el- (“deer”). Doublet of Elhaz.
Noun
[edit]elk (plural elk or elks)
- Any of various large species of deer such as the red deer, moose or wapiti (see usage notes).
- (chiefly Europe, Commonwealth) Any of the subspecies of the moose (Alces alces, the largest member of the deer family, alternatively named Eurasian elk to avoid confusion with the wapiti), that occurs only in Europe and Asia.
- (Canada, US) Common wapiti (Cervus canadensis), the second largest member of the deer family, once thought to be a subspecies of red deer.
- (British India) Sambar (Cervus unicolor).
- 1813, James Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, page 281:
- In a narrow defile […] a male elk, (cervus alces, Lin.) of noble appearance, followed by twenty-two females, passed majestically under their platform, each as large as a common-sized horse.
Usage notes
[edit]Elk originally referred to the moose. The wapiti was named elk by European explorers in North America, who thought it resembled the moose.
The word elk is now commonly used in the same way as the word caribou is used for the subspecies of the reindeer. The only difference here is that it refers only to a single subspecies, while caribou refers to several subspecies of the reindeer.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Translations
[edit]Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]elk (plural elks)
- Obsolete form of elke (common swan (Cygnus cygnus, syn. Cygnus ferus)).
References
[edit]- “elk”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
[edit]Afrikaans
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio: (file)
Pronoun
[edit]elk
Synonyms
[edit]Determiner
[edit]elk
- (in expressions only) Alternative form of elke (“every”)
- in elk geval — “in every (i.e. any) case”
Dutch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle Dutch elc. Compare English each, West Frisian elk, from Proto-Germanic *aiwô (“ever, always”) + *ga- + Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz.
Pronunciation
[edit]Determiner
[edit]elk
Usage notes
[edit]- The Dutch determiners elk and ieder are entirely interchangeable. They do not exhibit the slight distinction that is usually made between English each and every.[1]
Declension
[edit]Declension of elk | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | elk | |||
inflected | elke | |||
comparative | — | |||
positive | ||||
predicative/adverbial | elk | |||
indefinite | m./f. sing. | elke | ||
n. sing. | elk | |||
plural | elke | |||
definite | elke | |||
partitive |
Descendants
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]elk
References
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Low German
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Compare Dutch elk, English each.
Pronoun
[edit]elk
Declension
[edit]gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | all genders | ||
nominative | elk | elk(e) | elk | elk(e) | |
oblique | elken | elk(e) | elk | elk(e) |
See also
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Apparently from Old English eolh, though it is not found before 1475 and the phonetic development is unexpected, though compare dialectal English fleck (“flea”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]elk
Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “elk, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛlk
- Rhymes:English/ɛlk/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English doublets
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English indeclinable nouns
- European English
- Commonwealth English
- Canadian English
- American English
- British India English
- English terms with quotations
- English obsolete forms
- en:Cervids
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms with audio pronunciation
- Afrikaans lemmas
- Afrikaans pronouns
- Afrikaans terms with rare senses
- Afrikaans literary terms
- Afrikaans determiners
- Dutch terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɛlk
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɛlk/1 syllable
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch determiners
- Dutch terms with usage examples
- Dutch pronouns
- Dutch indefinite determiners
- Low German lemmas
- Low German pronouns
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Late Middle English
- Middle English rare terms
- enm:Cervids