elk

See also: Elk and -elk

English

Eurasian elk, or moose (Alces alces)
North American elk, or wapiti (Cervus canadensis)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlk/
  • (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English elk, from Old English eolc, eolh (elk), from Proto-Germanic *elhaz, *algiz (elk) (compare Low German Elk, German Elch, 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 (ełnik, doe, hind)), from *h₁el- (deer).

Noun

elk (plural elk or elks)

  1. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (originally) Any large species of deer such as red deer, moose or wapiti.
  2. The subspecies of the moose (Alces alces alces, alternatively named Eurasian elk because the wapiti is also called elk) that occurs only in Europe and Asia (not to be confused with the species called moose {Alces alces} which encompasses all subspecies of the moose).
  3. (now chiefly Europe) The largest member of the deer family (Alces alces); a moose.
  4. (Canada, US) The common wapiti (Cervus canadensis); the second largest member of the deer family, smaller only than a moose.
Usage notes

Notice that the word elk is 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
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Korean: 엘크 (elkeu)
Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

elk (plural elks)

  1. (obsolete) Alternative form of elke (the common swan (Cygnus cygnus, syn. Cygnus ferus)

References

  • elk at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams


Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch elk.

Pronoun

elk

  1. (rather rare, literary) everyone; everybody

Synonyms

Determiner

elk

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

Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlk/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: elk
  • Rhymes: -ɛlk

Determiner

elk

  1. each; every

Usage notes

  • 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]

Inflection

Inflection of elk
uninflected elk
inflected elke
comparative
positive
predicative/adverbial elk
indefinite m./f. sing. elke
n. sing. elk
plural elke
definite elke
partitive

Synonyms

Pronoun

elk

  1. (chiefly in expressions) everyone; everybody
    Melk is goed voor elk.
    Milk is good for everyone.
    Elk op zijn beurt.
    One at a time. (Literally: Everybody at their turn.)

References

Anagrams


Low German

Etymology

Compare Dutch elk, English each.

Pronoun

elk

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

Declension

See also

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