elk
/ɛlk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.49 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of various large species of deer such as the red deer, moose or wapiti (see usage notes).
Canadian usage; American usage
noun
Any of various large species of deer such as the red deer, moose or wapiti (see usage notes).
Indian usage
noun
A member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, an American fraternal order.
name
A team member of the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Elks (formerly known as the Eskimos).
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "Even modified it so that it would work with the differently ordered registers of an Electron. Never did get it working fully on the Elk, I think my Elk with Mode 7 box caused a problem with the use of IRQ workspace, system speed was also a factor IIRC."
- "I'm pretty certain I remember seeing it on a price list when most BBC and Elk games had to be mail ordered (I think Impact was the mail order company - they also produced games like Zenon and Clogger)."
- "Of course, ELK doesn't come without operational burden."
Etymology
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 (losʹ), Vedic Sanskrit ऋश्य (ṛ́śya, “antelope”); also German Elen, Tocharian A yäl, Tocharian B ylem (“gazelle”), Lithuanian élnis (“stag”), Armenian եղնիկ (eġnik, “doe, hind”). Doublet of Elhaz.