alce, n.
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Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin alcē.
Etymology: < classical Latin alcē (compare Hellenistic Greek ἄλκη ) < the Germanic base of elk n.1 (see discussion at that entry). Compare Middle French, French †alce (1560), Italian alce (14th cent.). Compare scientific Latin alces, specific name of the elk ( Linnaeus Systema naturæ (ed. 10, 1758 ) I. 66), later adopted as a genus name by J. E. Gray ( London Med. Repository 15 307).
Now historical and rare.
The elk, Alces alces (see elk n.1 1a).
1541 T. Elyot Image of Gouernance xxiv. f. 49
Alces, brought for the nones out of the great woddes of Germany.
1631 tr. J. A. Comenius Porta Linguarum Reserata xvii. §193
The backe of Alcis cannot be cut or broken with swords stroakes.
1678 E. Phillips New World of Words
(new ed.)
Alce, a wild Beast..hath no joynts in his legs, and therefore doth never lye down but lean to Trees..This beast in English we answerably call an Elk.
1797 Encycl. Brit. I. 364/1
Alce, Alces, or Elk, in zoology, the trivial name of a species of the cervus.
1852 R. H. Major tr. S. von Herberstein Notes upon Russia II. 95
Lithuania possess other wild beasts, besides such as are found in Germany, namely, bisons, buffaloes, and alces, which are wild horses.
1998 V. Dickenson Drawn from Life 131
The alce, or elk [in Historiæ Canadensis, 1664], which is probably a moose, is unrecognizable as such.
1541—1998(Hide quotations)