caribou

English borrowed "caribou" from Canadian French "caribou", which came from Mi'kmaq "qalipu", meaning caribou. That Mi'kmaq word traces back to Proto-Algonquian *maka·lipowa, literally "it shovels snow".

The word moved from an Algonquian description of an action — shoveling snow — into a Mi'kmaq noun naming the animal that does it, then was picked up by French speakers in Canada before entering English essentially unchanged.

Mi'kmaq "qalipi", meaning "to shovel snow", shares the same root and hints at the literal image behind the animal's name.