Also ? erron. wipiti. [a. Cree wapitik (Shawnee wahpetee) lit. ‘white deer.’] The North American stag or elk, Cervus canadensis, allied to but larger than the European Red Deer. Also attrib., wapiti deer, stag.
1817. Thomson’s Ann. Philos., IX. 325. At the same meeting [of the Linnæan Society] was read a description, by Dr. Leach, of the Wapiti deer, a species of animal from the banks of the Missouri.
1829. Sir J. Richardson, Fauna Bor. Amer., I. 251. Cervus strongyloceros. (Schreber.) The Wapiti. Ibid., 252. The trivial name of ‘wapiti’ has been only recently adopted in scientific works.
1890. S. W. Baker, Wild Beasts, II. 200. If a wapiti stag were placed in a line with a fine German, and a Scotch red-deer, there would be an immense difference in size.
1901. P. Fountain, Deserts N. Amer., ix. 179. The wapiti deer (which the American trappers and people always call the elk). Ibid. (1904), Gt. North-West, v. 49. The wipiti is ‘the elk’ of Americans. Ibid., xi. 119. The wipiti.
Comb. 1880. 19th Cent., Oct., 593 (title), Wapiti-running on the plains.
b. The flesh of this animal.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 3/2. Second course: Californian salmon, roast wapiti.
