moose

Etymology

It is a borrowing from an Algonquian language of north-eastern North America.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English trace it to Eastern Abenaki,^{[8][9][10][11]} and the OED and Dictionary.com derive the Abenaki word from Proto-Algonquian;^[8][12] the OED adds that it was probably reinforced, or borrowed again, from the identical word of the Algonquian languages of southern New England, such as Narragansett.^[8] Ayto, Partridge and Wiktionary see it as borrowed from Massachusett moos, in the Natick dialect,^[13][14][15] which Merriam-Webster's Unabridged connects with moos-u (“he trims, shaves”),^[4][13] and Barnhart and Collins with a Narragansett word for "he strips off",^[3][7] from the animal's habit of stripping bark from trees for food.^{[3][4][7][13]} Etymonline notes that this explanation comes from early sources and compares Ojibwe mooz.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The large North American deer: 1603 in Merriam-Webster's Unabridged,^[4] 1613 in Barnhart, as an American English word,^[3] and 1614 in the OED, in the second edition of Samuel Purchas's Pilgrimage.^[8] Weekley notes the spelling moos in Captain John Smith (1616).^[16]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "the large American deer; the biggest of the species of deer".^[17] The plural is also moose.^[2][4] The same animal in Europe and Asia is called the elk.^[7][4] The meat has been called moose since 1784,^[8] and hunters have spoken of calling moose, imitating the cow's call to attract bulls, since Thoreau (1858).^[8] As slang it was a nickname for a big, powerful or clumsy man by 1906,^[18] and the OED records the general sense of a person like a moose in size or strength from 1948;^[8] from 1941 it was also a derogatory word for a woman considered unattractive.^[8] The fraternal and service organization called the Loyal Order of Moose was founded in 1888, and a member is a Moose.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1603 – the animal, in Merriam-Webster's dating.^[4]
• 1613 – Barnhart's first date.^[3]
• 1614 – Purchas's Pilgrimage, the OED's first quotation.^[8]
• 1784 – the meat of the moose.^[8]
• 1858 – to call moose, in Thoreau.^[8]
• 1888 – the Loyal Order of Moose is founded.^[2]
• 1906 – slang, a big, strong man.^[18]
• 1941 – slang, an unattractive woman.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A very large deer (Alces alces) of northern forests in North America, Europe and Asia, with long legs, a humped back and broad, flat antlers; in Europe it is called the elk: We watched a moose wade into the lake.^[4][7][8]
2. The meat of the moose.^[8]
3. (slang) A big, strong or clumsy person.^[18][8]
4. (capitalized) A member of the Loyal Order of Moose, a fraternal organization.^[4][2]

Word family

• moosewood
• Bull Moose

Usage notes

The OED lists three other words spelled moose: an obsolete word for pottage (1568), probably from Dutch moes;^[8] a military slang word for a young Japanese or Korean woman, especially the wife or girlfriend of an American serviceman (1953), shortened from mousmé or from its Japanese source;^[8][11] and an acronym for an inflatable emergency capsule for astronauts (1966).^[8] Green's Dictionary of Slang dates the Japanese-derived word to 1941, in American use for a little sister or young girl.^[18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com