Definition
nounA 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.
nounA 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., Such a mammal that is in the family Cervidae.
Sentence Examples
The archer killed the deer.
The hunter shot at a deer.
The deer is three times as heavy as Jane.
Word Origin & History
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”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk dyr (“animal, beast”), Icelandic dýr (“animal, beast”).
Related also to Albanian dash (“ram”) (possibly), Lithuanian daũsos (“upper air; heaven”), Lithuanian dùsti (“to sigh”), Russian душа́ (dušá, “breath, spirit”), Lithuanian dvė̃sti (“to breathe, exhale”), Sanskrit ध्वंसति (dhvaṃsati, “he falls to dust”).
For the semantic development compare Latin animālis (“animal”), from anima (“breath, spirit”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Deer sperm was in used among the Romans as an aphrodisiac."
— 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 227:
"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[…]"
— 2012 December 2, Richard J. Goss, Deer Antlers: Regeneration, Function and Evolution, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 25:
"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."
— 2013 February 5, Anthony J. Whitten, Roehayat Emon Soeriaatmadja, Ecology of Java & Bali, Tuttle Publishing, →ISBN:
"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."
— 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:
"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."
— 2020, Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind, Bloomsbury (2023), page 76: