moose

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male

   I spotted a moose crossing the road.

2. 2
   noun

   The largest member of the deer family (Alces americanus, sometimes included in Alces alces), of which the male has very large, palmate antlers.

   We saw a moose at the edge of the woods.

3. 3
   noun

   Any of the extinct moose-like deer of the genera Cervalces and Libralces.

   Europe’s giant beavers lived at the same time as the first moose, Libralces gallicus.

4. 4
   noun

   An Asian girl taken as a lover.

   In military bases in the rear areas it was common for soldiers to have a moose.

Simplified etymology

Moose entered English in the early 17th century from Abnaki mos.

Earlier mus, moos, from an Eastern Algonquian language name for the animal, such as Massachusett moos, mws, Narragansett moos or Penobscot mos (cognate to Abenaki moz), from Proto-Algonquian *mo·swa (“it strips”), referring to how a moose strips tree bark when feeding: compare Massachusett moos-u (“he strips, cuts smooth”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary