deer
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪə/
ipa: /dɪɹ/
note: Scotland, some US
ipa: /diːɹ/
ipa: /diːɹ/
ipa: /diə/
note: East Anglia, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /dɛː/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
homophone: dear
homophone: dare (cheer–chair merger)
Forms: form: deer
form: deers
Etymology: From Middle English der, deer (“animal, deer”), from Old English dēor (“animal”), from Proto-West Germanic *deuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *deuzą, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewsóm (“living thing”), from *dʰéws (“breath”), full-grade derivative of *dʰwes-.
Cognate with Scots deer (“deer”), North Frisian dier (“animal, beast”), West Frisian dier (“animal, beast”), Dutch dier (“animal, beast”), German Low German Deer, Deert (“animal”), German Tier (“animal, beast”), Swedish djur (“animal, beast”), Norwegian dyr (“animal, beast”), Icelandic dýr (“animal, beast”), Danish dyr (“animal, beast”).
Related also to Albanian dash (“ram”) (possibly), Lithuanian daũsos (“upper air; heaven”), Lithuanian dùsti (“to sigh”), Russian душа́ (dušá, “breath, spirit”), Lithuanian dvėsti (“to breathe, exhale”), Sanskrit ध्वंसति (dhvaṃsati, “he falls to dust”).
For the semantic development compare Latin animālis (“animal”), from anima (“breath, spirit”).
Senses: examples: text: Deer sperm was in used among the Romans as an aphrodisiac.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 227:
text: Musk Deer (Moschus moschiferus)
The musk deer is unique in several ways, reflecting its taxonomic separation from other deer (Flerov, 1952). For example , they are the only deer to possess a gall bladder[…]
ref: 2012 December 2, Richard J. Goss, Deer Antlers: Regeneration, Function and Evolution, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 25:
text: The Java deer Cervus timorensis is now widespread […] This deer has become rather uncommon as the lowlands have been converted to rice and sugarcane, and the hills to coffee and other crops, while the smaller muntjac deer Muntiacus muntjak has persisted in many areas where there is some forest cover. The third and smallest deer on Java and Bali is the mouse deer Tragulus javanicus.
ref: 2013 February 5, Anthony J. Whitten, Roehayat Emon Soeriaatmadja, Ecology of Java & Bali, Tuttle Publishing, →ISBN:
glosses: A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla, such as the musk deer or mouse deer.
examples: text: Nara and its deer are so closely associated that the light-brown colored animals are pictured in the city’s tourism ads, on buses, train tickets and more.
ref: 2024 July 23, Lilit Marcus, “Japan may be sick of mass tourism. But the deer in this ancient UNESCO-listed city love it”, in CNN:
glosses: A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla, such as the musk deer or mouse deer.
A ruminant mammal of the family Cervidae.
raw_tags: in particular
examples: text: I wrecked my car after a deer ran across the road.
text: In the space beyond that, Rose saw a deer, with abbreviated velvet antlers and a cautious yet somehow also bored mien, considering her through dark, strangely human eyes.
ref: 2020, Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind, Bloomsbury (2023), page 76:
glosses: A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla, such as the musk deer or mouse deer.
One of the smaller animals of the family Cervidae, distinguished from a moose or elk.
raw_tags: in particular
examples: text: Oh, I've never had deer before.
glosses: The meat of such an animal, obtained through the process of hunting or from specialized deer farms; venison.
examples: text: But mice and rats and such small deer, have been Tom's food for seven long year.
ref: 1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act III, scene IV:
qualifier: except in the phrase "small deer"
glosses: Any animal, especially a quadrupedal mammal as opposed to a bird, fish, etc.
Hypernyms: sense: ruminant mammal
word: cervid
Hyponyms: word: buck
english: male deer
translation: male deer
word: hart
word: doe
english: female deer
translation: female deer
word: hind
english: young deer
translation: young deer
word: fawn
english: adult male deer
translation: adult male deer
word: stag
Coordinate terms: sense: ruminant mammal
word: barasingha
sense: ruminant mammal
word: caribou
sense: ruminant mammal
word: elk
sense: ruminant mammal
word: moose
sense: ruminant mammal
word: muntjak
Derived terms: antideer
axis deer
Bactrian deer
barking deer
Bawean deer
black-tailed deer
brow-antlered deer
Calamian deer
Chinese water deer
cloud deer
Corsican red deer
deer antler knife
deerberry
deerburger
Deer Creek
deerdom
Deerfield
deerflesh
deer fly
deerfly
deer fly fever
deerfold
deerfood
deergrass
deergut
deer-hair
deer-hay
deerhood
deerhorn
deer horn knife
deerhound
deerie
deer in the headlights
deer in the headlight syndrome
deerish
Deer Island
deer ked
deerless
deerlet
deerlick
deerlike
deerling
Deer Lodge
deer meat
deer moon
deer mouse
deer-neck
deerness
deer-pig
deer scarer
deershit
deer-skin
deerskin
deerslaughter
deerslayer
deer stalker
deerstalker
deer stalking
deerstealer
deer's tongue
deer tick
deer tiger
deertoe
deervetch
Eld's deer
European red deer
fallow deer
Formosan deer
ghost deer
giant deer
Guinea deer
hog deer
Indian hog deer
Indochinese hog deer
Irish deer
Japanese deer
Java mouse-deer
key deer
kill-deer
Maral deer
marsh deer
Mindanao mountain deer
Mindoro deer
moose deer
mouse-deer
mountain deer
mouse deer
mule deer
musk deer
nondeer
north Andean deer
pampas deer
Père David's deer
Prince Alfred's deer
ravine deer
red deer
reindeer
rib-faced deer
roe deer
roedeer
rusa deer
Schomburgk's deer
sika deer
Sitka deer
spotted deer
swamp deer
teal deer
telemetacarpal deer
Thorold's deer
Tsushima Island deer
vampire deer
Vietnamese deer
Virginia deer
Visayan spotted deer
water deer
western roe deer
White Deer
white-tailed deer
Yarkand deer
zombie deer disease