means a very large, long-legged deer of northern forests, with a heavy muzzle and (on males) broad palmate antlers, found across Canada, the northern U.S., and northern Eurasia.

from From an Eastern Algonquian word — likely Eastern Abenaki 'mos' or a close relative — that English-speaking colonists in New England borrowed in the early 1600s. The native term is often glossed as 'he strips or eats off,' a nod to the animal's habit of stripping bark and twigs from trees. In Europe the same animal is the 'elk' (related to Latin 'alces' and Greek 'alke'), which is why American 'elk' and European 'elk' got delightfully tangled — but 'moose' itself is a genuine Native American loanword, one of the earliest English picked up in the New World.