![\"Moose\"](\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/moose.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In North America a moose<\/strong> is a large member of the deer family, also known by its Latin name alces alces<\/em>. The word moose comes from Algonquian languages, such as the Naragansett moos<\/em> or the Eastern Abenaki mos<\/em>. These words are thought to come from moosu<\/em> (“it strips”), from the Proto-Alonquian mo.swa<\/em>.<\/p>\n The same animal is known as an elk<\/strong> in British English, and is called something similar in quite a few other European languages: elc<\/em> in Welsh, Elch<\/em> in German, elg<\/em> in Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian, \u00e4lg<\/em> in Swedish, alce<\/em> in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, and alnis<\/em> in Latvian [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n The word elk<\/strong> refers to a different species of deer in North America, however, which is also known as the wapiti<\/em> or cervus canadensis<\/em> in Latin [source<\/a>]. The name wapiti<\/strong> comes from the Cree or Shawnee waapiti<\/em> (elk; white rump) [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n In French a moose or elk is \u00e9lan<\/strong> [e\u026a\u02c8l\u0251\u02d0n], wapiti<\/strong> [wa.pi.ti] or orignal<\/strong> [\u0254.\u0281i.\u0272al]. \u00c9lan<\/strong> probably comes from Lativan [source<\/a>]. Orignal<\/strong> refers to the Canadian moose and comes from the Basque word oreinak<\/em>, plural of orein<\/em> (deer) [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n Moose is also a way to write mouse in Scots – it’s pronouned [mus], and features in the famous saying “there’s a moose loose aboot this hoose”, which comes from the song Hoots Mon<\/em> by Harry Robinson [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n So a moose is a moose, except when it’s an elk or a mouse.<\/p>\n Here’s a tune I wrote called The Loose Moose \/ Yr Elc Rhydd<\/em>:<\/p>\n![\"Elk\"](\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/elk.jpg\")
<\/p>\n