Meaning

noun large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male; called `elk' in Europe and `moose' in North America

noun large North American deer with large much-branched antlers in the male

noun common deer of temperate Europe and Asia

originFrom 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0