deer

Meaning

Noun

• A ruminant mammal with antlers and hooves of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla.
• One of the smaller animals of this family, distinguished from a moose or elk
• The meat of such an animal; venison.
• Any animal, especially a quadrupedal mammal as opposed to a bird, fish, etc.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• buck, stag ; doe, hind ; fawn ; hart

Origin

• From Middle English deere, dere, der, dier, deor, from Old English dēor ("animal"), from Proto-West Germanic *deuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *deuzą, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewsóm, from *dʰéws, full-grade derivative of *dʰwes-.
• Cognate with Scots dere, deir, North Frisian dier, West Frisian dier, Dutch dier, German Low German Deer, Deert, German Tier, Swedish djur, Norwegian dyr, Icelandic dýr.
• Related also to Albanian dash (possibly), Lithuanian daũsos, Lithuanian dùsti, Russian душа́, Lithuanian dvėsti, Sanskrit ध्वंसति.
• For the semantic development compare Latin animālis, from anima.