Wapiti, elk and moose

[Mark Mandel]

OED says it's Cree, not Inuit:

adopted from Cree wapitik (Shawnee wahpetee) lit. 'white deer'.

m a m

On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 1:37 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> In passing, I caught several seconds of Rachael Ray's "La Belle Ville"
> of her "Rachel's Vacation" show.
>
> I'm not sure if I caught it correct, but I think she introduced
> wapiti, a dish served in a Montreal restaurant, as being the Inuit
> word for moose.
>
> Because moose (Alces alces) are known as elk in Europe while elk
> (Cervus canadensis) is a different species in NA, it's hard to keep
> track of it all, but Wikipedia gives wapiti as meaning Cervus
> canadensis and coming from Cree while saying that moose derives from
> Eastern Abnaki.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapiti
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose
>
> My main interest was that I'd never heard wapiti actually in use. FWIW
> BB

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