The moose became extinct in Britain during the Bronze Age, long before the European arrival in the Americas. The youngest bones were found in Scotland and are roughly 3,900 years old. The word “elk” remained in usage because of its existence in continental Europe but, without any living animals around to serve as a reference, the meaning became rather vague to most speakers of English, who used “elk” to refer to “large deer” in general. Dictionaries of the 18th century simply described “elk” as a deer that was “as large as a horse”.
