elk

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See also: Elk, ELK, -elk, and Ełk

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Eurasian elk, or moose (Alces alces)
North American elk, or wapiti (Cervus canadensis)

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ɛlk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛlk

Etymology 1

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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

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elk (plural elk or elks)

  1. Any of various large species of deer such as the red deer, moose or wapiti (see usage notes).
    1. (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.
    2. (Canada, US) Common wapiti (Cervus canadensis), the second largest member of the deer family, once thought to be a subspecies of red deer.
    3. (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
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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
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • German: Elk (obsolete)
  • Korean: 엘크 (elkeu)
  • Malayalam: എൽക്ക് (elkkŭ)
  • Welsh: elc
Translations
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Etymology 2

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Noun

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elk (plural elks)

  1. Obsolete form of elke (common swan (Cygnus cygnus, syn. Cygnus ferus)).

References

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  • elk”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Etymology

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From Dutch elk.

Pronunciation

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Pronoun

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elk

  1. (rather rare, literary) everyone; everybody

Synonyms

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Determiner

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elk

  1. (in expressions only) Alternative form of elke (every)
    in elk geval — “in every (i.e. any) case”

Dutch

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Etymology

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From Middle Dutch elc. Compare English each, West Frisian elk, from Proto-Germanic *aiwô (ever, always) + *ga- + Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz.

Pronunciation

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Determiner

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elk

  1. each; every
    Synonyms: ieder, (archaic) iegelijk
    Ik ga elke dag even naar het park.I go to the park every day.

Usage notes

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  • 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

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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

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  • Afrikaans: elk
  • Negerhollands: elk

Pronoun

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elk

  1. (chiefly in expressions) everyone; everybody
    Synonyms: ieder, iegelijk
    Melk is goed voor elk.Milk is good for everyone.
    Elk op zijn beurt.One at a time. (literally, “Everybody at their turn.”)

References

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Anagrams

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Low German

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Etymology

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Compare Dutch elk, English each.

Pronoun

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elk

  1. (in the singular) each, every
  2. (in the plural) some, many

Declension

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See also

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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elk

  1. (Late Middle English, rare) elk, moose (Alces alces)

Descendants

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References

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