Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1600s
Moose
from moos
- Meaning
- A large deer, *Alces alces*, of northern forests.
- Source word
- moos
- Route into English
- Eastern Abenaki *moos* (he who strips off bark) → English in early New England → the Eurasian subspecies is known in Britain as "elk," making "moose" an exclusively North American English word.
- Arrived
- 1600s
From Indigenous languages
A loose group: Nahuatl, Taino, Algonquian, Guugu Yimithirr, and others. Colonial contact produced many loans; the speakers were often systematically dispossessed of the land the loanwords described.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.