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Why Is It Elks And Not Elk Club?


Yul Lose

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In my seventh grade English class in Creede, Co. Mrs. Cole the teacher corrected me when I mentioned that I had seen some elks the night before on the hill above town. It is pronounced elk and not elks when you see more than one elk, she said. So why are Elks Clubs Elks Clubs instead of Elk Club? The Moose Clubs are Moose Clubs and not Moose’s Clubs so why do the Elks folks pronounce their club name contrary to another animal oriented social club of ungulates? Seems like they’d want to get the club name correct given Mrs. Coles and Mr Hinshaws (the game warden at the time) seemingly correct pronounciation of the word. When we see more than one javelina we say we saw some javelina. The same goes for sheep, deer, etc.. So how about it all of you Elk pards, what’s the answer?

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1 minute ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

BPOE

But wouldn’t that be Elk instead of Elks?

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1 minute ago, Yul Lose said:

But wouldn’t that be Elk instead of Elks?

No. Nor would it be Benevolent Protective Order of Goose.

 

  But this makes less sense:

Rhode Island. 

It’s not an island.

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3 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

No. Nor would it be Benevolent Protective Order of Goose.

 

  But this makes less sense:

Rhode Island. 

It’s not an island.

Ah, but wouldn’t they be geese?

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The mistake is that you give Mrs Cole credit for having been correct.

 

Quote

I've checked in dictionaries and note that the OED doesn't mention the plural at all (and has several citations which include the form 'elks') but its sister publication The Oxford Dictionary of English says that the plural can be either the same (elk) or elks.

 

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4 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

The mistake is that you give Mrs Cole credit for having been correct.

 

 

Ah, but she was my rather senior, college educated English teacher and given her status and the sound reprimand that she gave me for the mispronunciation of the ungulates name I believe that she knew what she was talking about. Go up to Colorado and see how many people call elk elks and you’ll see that elk is the proper pronounciation. Call them elks a few times in discussions with some of the locals and they’ll set you straight.

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Elk are moose anyway. Ask any Scandinavian. They hunt a lot more of them than we do.

 

"Alces" being the genus name for moose. Hard 'c'. So settlers here called the big stag elk and the elk moose after the Indian name.

 

Just like they called cypresses 'cedars' when they got here....even though the Cedars (like the Cedar of Lebanon) are needle trees in the pine family.

 

So a member of the Elks oughta be able to go to the Moose clubhouse and vice versa.

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4 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

Elk are moose anyway. Ask any Scandinavian. They hunt a lot more of them than we do.

 

"Alces" being the genus name for moose. Hard 'c'. So settlers here called the big stag elk and the elk moose after the Indian name.

 

Just like they called cypresses 'cedars' when they got here....even though the Cedars (like the Cedar of Lebanon) are needle trees in the pine family.

 

So a member of the Elks oughta be able to go to the Moose clubhouse and vice versa.

I wonder if it’s like the Hells Angels versus the Devils Desciples type gathering when they all get together.

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34 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

Elk are moose anyway. Ask any Scandinavian. They hunt a lot more of them than we do.

 

"Alces" being the genus name for moose. Hard 'c'. So settlers here called the big stag elk and the elk moose after the Indian name.

 

Just like they called cypresses 'cedars' when they got here....even though the Cedars (like the Cedar of Lebanon) are needle trees in the pine family.

 

So a member of the Elks oughta be able to go to the Moose clubhouse and vice versa.

Around here they call Junipers Cedars.

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1 hour ago, Yul Lose said:

Ah, but she was my rather senior, college educated English teacher and given her status and the sound reprimand that she gave me for the mispronunciation of the ungulates name I believe that she knew what she was talking about. Go up to Colorado and see how many people call elk elks and you’ll see that elk is the proper pronounciation. Call them elks a few times in discussions with some of the locals and they’ll set you straight.

Whole bunch of poorly educated people in the world.

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