Other forms: elks
An elk is a very large deer of northern forests. Heavy shoulders, a long face, and antlers like flattened branches.
The name is a genuine transatlantic muddle. In Europe an elk is the animal Americans call a moose. In North America elk means a different and smaller deer, also called wapiti. So the same word names two animals depending on which continent you are standing on. European elk live across Scandinavia and Russia, and hitting one with a car is a serious hazard there.
1nounelkA very large deer of northern forests, called a moose in North America.
“An elk stepped out of the trees ahead of them.”
Elk goes back to a Proto-Indo-European word simply meaning deer, through Proto-Germanic elhaz to Old English eolh. North America calls the same animal a moose.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁élḱis
Proto-Germanic
*elhaz
Proto-West Germanic
*elh
Old English
eolc
Middle English
elk
English, today
elk
Built from
From Middle English elk, from Old English eolc, eolh (“elk”), from Proto-West Germanic elh, from Proto-Germanic elhaz, algiz (“elk”), from Proto-Indo-European h₁élḱis, h₁ólḱis, variant of h₁elh₁én, from h₁el- (“deer”). See also Low German Elk, German Elch, Danish elg, Norwegian elg, Swedish älg; also Polish łoś, Russian лось, sa-ved ऋश्य (“antelope”); also German Elen, xto yäl, txb ylem (“gazelle”), Lithuanian élnis (“stag”), Armenian եղնիկ (“doe, hind”). a doublet of Elhaz.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA