Wednesday, February 03, 2010

How do you say "elk" in Korean?

My dictionary says elk is 말코손바닥사슴. A deer with a horse's nose and hoofs? UPDATE: 말코손바닥사슴 is the Korean word for "moose," not elk. The word is descriptive since 말코 means "horse nose" and 손바닥 means "palm," which most likely refers to the palm-shaped antlers of the moose. 사슴 means "deer."
Photo of a moose from Wikipedia
The Korean word for elk seems to be 와피티사슴, which comes from the Korean transliteration of "wapiti" (와피티), another name for "elk."
Photo of an elk from Wikipedia
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By the way, can anyone count how many elk are in the following video?
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7 comments:

  1. fredFebruary 3, 2010 at 7:56:00 PM CST

    AMAZING!!! Not exactly an endangered species in that particular area. Beautiful

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 4, 2010 at 6:25:00 AM CST

    I think it has horse's nose and palm-shaped antler.

    ReplyDelete
  3. neoscrumFebruary 4, 2010 at 10:45:00 AM CST

    as a korean, i could say that ordinary koreans can't distinguish any kind of 사슴.
    so, if someone ask me about the name of the animal. i might say just '사슴' or '미국 사슴'.
    i guess another koreans do same comment. ^^;;

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gerry BeversFebruary 4, 2010 at 11:17:00 PM CST

    Annonymous & others,

    Yes, the 손바닥 (palm) is most likely referring to the horns instead of the hoofs, which means that 말코손바닥사슴 is the Korean name for "moose," not elk. The Korean name for elk is 와피티사슴, which Korea's Wikipedia lists as "least concerned" on the endangered species chart.

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  5. josephMarch 8, 2010 at 8:15:00 AM CST

    Please make a post about Korean deer, they have big ones at 서울슾 but I heard that the only deer is really small, like not up to your waist.

    thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joseph KimDecember 24, 2010 at 10:14:00 AM CST

    same name with me....

    not 서울슾, but 서울숲 is correct.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownJanuary 10, 2017 at 1:58:00 PM CST

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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