| 释义 |
elephant|ˈɛlɪfənt|
Forms: α. 4–6 oli-, olyfaunte, (4 pl. olifauns, -fauntz), 4 olyfont, -funt, 5–6 olifant(e, 4 olephaunte, 5–6 olyphaunt, 4–7 oli-, olyphant(e. β. 4 elifans, 4–5 ele-, elyphaunt(e, 5 elefaunte, 6 eliphant, 5–6 elephante, 6– elephant.
[ME. olifaunt, a. OF. olifant, repr. a popular L. *olifantu-m (whence Pr. olifan; cf. MDu. olfant, Bret. olifant, Welsh oliffant, Corn. oliphans, which may be all from ME. or OFr.), corrupt form of L. elephantum, elephantem (nom. elephantus, -phas, -phans), ad. and a. Gr. ἐλέϕας (gen. ἐλέϕαντος). The refashioning of the word after Lat. seems to have taken place earlier in Eng. than in Fr., the Fr. forms with el- being cited only from 15th c.
Of the ultimate etymology nothing is really known. As the Gr. word is found (though only in sense ‘ivory’) in Homer and Hesiod, it seems unlikely that it can be, as some have supposed, of Indian origin. The resemblance in sound to Heb. eleph ‘ox’ has given rise to a suggestion of derivation from some Phœnician or Punic compound of that word; others have conjectured that the word may be African. See Yule Hobson-Jobson Suppl., s.v. For the possible relation to this word of the Teut. and Slavonic name for ‘camel’, see olfend. The origin of the corrupt Romanic forms with ol- is unknown, but they may be compared with L. oleum, olīva, ad. Gr. ἔλαιον, έλαία.]
1. a. A huge quadruped of the Pachydermate order, having long curving ivory tusks, and a prehensile trunk or proboscis. Of several species once distributed over the world, including Britain, only two now exist, the African and Indian; the former is the largest of extant land animals, and the latter is often used as a beast of burden, and in war.
c1300K. Alis. 854 Olifauns, and camelis, Weoren y⁓charged with vitailes. 1340Ayenb. 84 Virtue makeþ man..strang ase olyfont. Ibid. 224 Þe elifans nele naȝt wonye mid his wyue, þerhuyle þet hi is mid childe. c1374Chaucer Boeth. iii. viii. 80 Mayst þou sourmounten þise olifuntz in gretnesse. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxviii. (1495) 138 The elyphaunt hath a longe nose lyke a trompe. c1400Mandeville xxii. 238 Olifauntz, tame and othere. 1430Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xi, Elyphauntes and large Unicornes..Forged of brasse. 1481Caxton Myrr. ii. vi. 75 An olyphaunt bereth wel a tour of woode vpon his backe. 15..Proph. on State of Eng. in Furniv. Ballads fr. MSS. I. 316 ffor the Sklaunderyng of the Olyfaunte with the long nose. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 383 The elephante (which sum caule an oliphant) is the biggest of all foure footed beastes. 1570B. Googe Pop. Kingd. ii. (1880) 24 b, Of Flyes they able are to make, great Eliphants in sight. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 113 The Elephant hath ioynts, but none for curtesie. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 345 Th' unwieldy Elephant To make them Mirth..wreath'd His Lithe Proboscis. 1727Thomson Summer 721 The huge Elephant, wisest of brutes. 1857Livingstone Trav. xxviii. 563 Full-grown male elephants..ranged in height at the withers from 9 feet 9 inches to 9 feet 10 inches.
b. fig. of a man of huge stature.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 2 Shall the Elephant Aiax carry it thus?
c. elephant's teeth (i.e. tusks): ivory.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. xxxiii. (1495) 480 Salomons seruauntes broughte..elephauntes teeth. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 73/3 The nauye of the kynge..brouht..teeth of Olyphauntes and grete richesses. 1562Lanc. Wills i. (1857) 183 A sett of chest men of oliphants teeth. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 2 A Frigot..her Lading Gold and Elephants teeth.
d. to see the elephant (U.S. slang): to see life, the world, or the sights (as of a large city); to get experience of life, to gain knowledge by experience. Also to show or get a look at the elephant. (Cf. lion n. 4.)
[1835A. B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes 10 (Th.), That's sufficient, as Tom Haynes said when he saw the elephant.] 1844G. W. Kendall Narr. Santa Fé Exped. I. 108 There is a cant expression, ‘I've seen the elephant’ in very common use in Texas. a1847W. T. Porter Quarter Race Kentucky (1847) 87 (Th.), I axed him if he'd ever seen the elephant. 1849N. Kingsley Diary (1914) 86 [I] went up town and saw the Elephant, and it almost baffles description. 1849T. T. Johnson Sights in Gold Region 324 (Th.), If you think we have not shown you enough of the elephant..please to mount him and take a view for yourself. 1857Quinland II. ii. xviii. 126 The ‘Fox and Crow’ is one of the famous sights in New York. It is never missed by the countryman or the foreigner, who is searching after the ‘elephant’. 1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds iii. 45 My friend Will Wylie, who had seen the elephant in its entirety, from trunk to tail. 1906‘O. Henry’ Four Million 87 He makes his rounds every evening, while you and I see the elephant once a week. 1960T. V. Olsen High Lawless (1961) iii. 30 Saturdays some of the boys from the three big outfits come in to see the elephant.
e. As the emblem of the Republican party in the United States.
[1860Railsplitter in Sperber & Trittschuh Amer. Pol. Terms (1962) 141/2 Woodcut: elephant..announcing a Lincoln demonstration. 1874Harper's Weekly XVIII. 912 (caption under an elephant) The Republican Vote.] 1876Ibid. 28 Oct. 868 (caption) ‘The elephant walks around’—and the ‘still hunt’ is nearly over. 1904Chicago Tribune 20 June 6 The selection..will..handicap the republic elephant in the coming race. 1952Economist 12 July 89/1 It would now take some sort of a miracle for Mr. Taft to catch the Republican elephant.
f. In full elephant-colour: a fashion shade simulating the grey colour of the elephant. Cf. elephant-grey below.
1875All Year Round 278/1 So admirably is elephant-colour copied. 1894Queen 6 Oct. 574/1 The shade of cloth used..being known as ‘Elephant’. 1923Daily Mail 7 June 6 In Almond Green,..Mole, Elephant, Honey.
2. white elephant.
a. A rare albino variety of elephant which is highly venerated in some Asian countries.
b. fig. A burdensome or costly possession (from the story that the kings of Siam were accustomed to make a present of one of these animals to courtiers who had rendered themselves obnoxious, in order to ruin the recipient by the cost of its maintenance). Also, an object, scheme, etc., considered to be without use or value.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 208 An Indian, who had brought vp from a Foale a white Elephant. 1663H. C[ogan] tr. Pinto's Travels xlviii. 274 The white elephant whereon he [the King of Siam] was mounted. 1841Penny Cycl. XXI. 451/2 White elephants..are kept in the stables of the king [of Siam], and treated with a kind of veneration. 1851G. E. Jewsbury Let. 23 July (1892) 414 His services are like so many white elephants, of which nobody can make use, and yet that drain one's gratitude, if indeed one does not feel bankrupt. 1883Croft in Elyot's Governor I. Life 60 Elyot regarded this new dignity much as the gift of a white elephant. 1928Galsworthy Swan Song ii. ii. 113 ‘You look so well in that hat, Uncle.’ Soames took it off again. ‘White elephant,’ he said. ‘Can't think what made Fleur get me the thing!’ 1931‘R. Crompton’ William's Crowded Hours viii. 182 Let's have it a sort of second-hand stall—what they call a White Elephant Stall. 1950G. J. Renier History iii. iii. 203 The miser often has a white elephant upon which he lavishes money: a house, or an unworthy friend. 1963Times 4 Mar. 11/4 The original white elephant was presumably an elephant, but he or she might well have been a poor man's mediocre racehorse. 1970Daily Mail 27 Oct. 2/8 The new rail link may prove to be ideologically satisfying, but in financial terms it looks like becoming the biggest white elephant in all Africa.
3. As the sign of an inn; the modern ‘Elephant and Castle’.
1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iii. 39 In the South Suburbes, at the Elephant, Is best to lodge. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho., (C.D. ed.) xxvii. 235 The far-famed Elephant who has lost his castle.
†4.
a. Ivory [after L. elephantus].
b. A horn or trumpet of ivory [after OFr. olifant]. Obs.
c1300K. Alis. 1182 To mouth he set his olifaunt. 1615Chapman Odyss. xix. 77 A chair..The substance silver and rich elephant. 1698Dryden Virg. æneid iii. 595 Heavy Gold, and polished Elephant. 1725Pope Odyss. xxi. 10 The handle..With steel and polish'd elephant adorn'd.
5. A Danish Order of Knighthood.
1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3895/2 The King of Denmark conferred the Order of the Elephant upon the Duke of Mecklembourg. 1751Chambers Cycl., Its badge..is an elephant, with a castle on its back, set with diamonds, and hung on a watered sky-coloured ribband, like the George in England...In 1189..a gentleman among the Danish croisees killed an elephant; in memory of which..the order was erected. 1837Penny Cycl. VIII. 401/1 The orders of knighthood [in Denmark] are the order of the Elephant, etc.
6. sea elephant: a species of Seal (Macrorhinus proboscideus), the males of which have the snout somewhat prolonged.
1798Naval Chron. (1799) I. 254 The sea elephant..has been rather scarce. 1841Penny Cycl. XXI. 165 Macrorhinus proboscideus..Sea-Elephant and Elephant-Seal of the English.
†7. A species of lizard mentioned by Pliny. Obs.
1601Holland Pliny II. 451 Black Elephants..which be the black kind of the Lizards. 1608Topsell Serpents 718 There be..serpents called ‘Elephants’, because whomsoever they bite they infect with a kinde of leprosie.
†8. [after Pg. elephante: see elephanta.] ‘A name given originally by the Portuguese to violent storms occuring at the termination, though some travellers describe it as at the setting in, of the Monsoon’ (Yule). Obs.
[1554Sidi' Ali 75 (Y.) The kind of storm is known under the name of the Elephant; it blows from the west.] 1616Sir T. Roe in Purchas Pilgr. I. 549 (Y.) The 20th day (August), the night past fell a storme of raine called the Oliphant, vsuall at going out of the raines. 1703Art's Improv. Introd. 26 Eighthly, Of Winds, and storms at Sea; as Trades-Winds, Huricanes.. Elephants, Monsoons.
9. Bot. A species of Scabious.
1847in Halliw. 1878Britten & Holl. Plant-n.
10. a. (more fully elephant-paper): A size of drawing and cartridge paper measuring 28 × 23 inches. double elephant: a similar paper measuring 40 × 26½ inches.
1702Lond. Gaz. No. 3814/4 On two large sheets of Elephant Paper. 1716Ibid. No. 5493/4 The fine Imperial will not be sold under 7l...and the Elephant 3l. c1790J. Imison Sch. Art. I. 238 A sheet of the largest elephant paper. 1807Opie Lect. Art iv. (1848) 323 Writing..upon..double elephant..paper. 1870Jevons Elem. Logic iv. 35 Elephant in a stationer's..shop means a large kind of paper. 1880Daily Tel. 3 Dec., ‘Elephant folio’..that is to say, of the fullest portfolio size.
b. Army slang. (See quots. 1925 and 1943.)
1917A. G. Empey From Fire Step 152 One gun..had the exact range of our ‘elephant’ dug-out entrance. 1919War Terms in Athenæum 15 Aug. 759/1 Elephant, corrugated iron shelter. Baby elephant, small corrugated iron shelter. 1919G. K. Rose 2/4th Oxf. & Bucks Lt. Infty. 10 Battalion Headquarters..were comfortable enough with many ‘elephant’ dug-outs and half a farm⁓house for a mess. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words, Elephant (and Baby Elephant) Dug-Out: a dug-out made with semi-circular linings of heavy corrugated iron. The two names refer to the two sizes issued. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 30 Elephant hut, a Nissen hut (shaped somewhat like the beast).
11. a. attrib. and Comb., as elephant bell, elephant-horn, elephant house, elephant-keeper, elephant-killer, elephant-shed; elephant-headed, elephant-like adjs. Also elephant-bed (see quot.); elephant-beetle, some South American beetle, prob. Dynastes Neptunus; the name has also been applied to the African species Goliathus giganteus and G. cacicus; elephant bird, a large fossil bird of the genus æpyornis, found in Madagascar; elephant's breath, a shade of colour, light steel grey; elephant-fish (see quot.); elephant-gravel, gravel containing remains of elephants; elephant-grey = 1 f; elephant hawk-moth (see quot.); elephant joke, a child's nonsense riddle of which an elephant (usu. in a ridiculous situation) is the subject: (see quot. 1984); elephant-leg = elephantiasis; elephant-paper (see 10); elephant-path, a path trodden by elephants; elephant-rain (see quot.); elephant-seal = sea-elephant (see 6); elephant-shrew (see quot.); elephant-trumpet (see 4); elephant('s) trunk rhyming slang, drunk, also ellipt.; elephant's-tusks, a genus of gasteropodous molluscs belonging to the family Dentalidæ or tooth-shells.
1887Woodward Geol. Eng. & Wales 519 The *Elephant Bed [at Brighton] first described by Dr. Mantell is provincially termed Combe rock..it contains remains of Elephas primigenius, etc.
1774Goldsmith Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 139 The *Elephant-beetle..is found in ..Guiana and Surinam. 1777Henly in Phil. Trans. LXVII. 123 Thigh of the elephant beetle.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 170 The *elephant bells striking slow, tong-tong, tong-tong.
1889Cent. Dict., *Elephant-bird. 1933A. S. Romer Vert. Paleont. x. 214 In Madagascar lived a number of species of ‘elephant-birds’. 1969New Scientist 13 Mar. 20/1 The peculiar and often bizarre forms evolved in isolation: species such as..the elephant-bird in Madagascar.
1884Cassell's Fam. Mag. Mar. 246/2 Dressed in grey, the shade known as ‘*elephant's breath’.
1772–84Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1283 Fish..known to seamen by the name of *elephant fish. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Elephant-fish, the Chimæra callorhynchus named from the proboscis-like process on its nose.
1852E. Forbes Let. in Life Forbes xiv. 505 The newer *elephant-gravel of these parts.
1896Daily News 12 Sept. 6/2 ‘*Elephant’ grey is another favourite. 1906Westm. Gaz. 7 Apr. 18/2 A tailor suit of elephant-grey facecloth. 1921G. Jekyll Colour Schemes Flower Garden 2 The trunks of the Spanish Chestnuts are elephant-grey. 1922Joyce Ulysses 153 Molly had that elephantgrey dress with the braided frogs.
1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. ii. 52 Chærocampa elpenor, the *elephant hawk-moth.
1854F. Hall Rája-níti Notes 1 *Elephant-headed..Ganesa, fulfil my desires.
188419th Cent. Feb. 252 A dozen *elephant-horns heralded forth that the royal party were in motion.
1895C. J. Cornish Life at Zoo 7 The *Elephant and Antelope Houses. 1922Joyce Ulysses 92 A tall blackbearded figure..stumping round the corner of Elvery's elephant house. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 30 Elephant houses, old forts at Dunkirk.
1966C. Williams Don't just stand There (1967) 148 Well, hell, do isometric exercises, tell *elephant jokes, write postcards. 1976Daily Mirror 11 Mar. 12/2 They should chew gum and tell elephant jokes and experiment with lipstick and play their transistor radios very loudly indeed. 1984T. Augarde Oxf. Guide Word Games i. 13 How can you tell if an elephant has been in your fridge? Footprints in the butter. The last of these [riddles] is obviously modern—and a typical example of the craze for ‘elephant’ jokes which existed in the 1970s.
1799Corse in Phil. Trans. LXXXIX. 210 Besides these, the *elephant-keepers notice other varieties, which are less distinct.
1607Topsell Serpents 703 Neither have they any other name for those Dragons but *Elephant-killers.
a1603T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 500 Your knees..are ioyntlesse and *Elephant-like in your obedience unto his precepts.
1853Edin. New Philos. Jrnl. LV. 79 Passages made formerly by the gigantic elephant, which are well adapted for bridle-paths... The knowledge of these various *elephant-paths forms the resource of the marauding Caffre.
1895Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk. 215 A light spring rain—*elephant-rain they call it—drove across the Jungle.
1859J. Lang Wand. India 261 Her tomb..had been taken away bodily, to pave the *elephant shed.
1868Wood Homes without H. i. 15 The *Elephant Shrew of Southern Africa (Macroscelides typicus) a thick-furred, long-snouted, short-eared burrower.
1859Hotten Dict. Slang 143 *Elephant's trunk, drunk. 1909J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 123/2 Elephant's trunk: drunk. The phrase became incomprehensible by the dropping of the rhyming. ‘Oh he's elephants’ (i.e., intoxicated) will, in time to come, exercise many an etymologist. 1931Evening Standard 19 Aug. 10/1 He came home and he found the artful dodger elephant trunk in the bread and butter (He found the lodger drunk in the gutter).
b. Also in the names of various plants, as elephant-apple (see quot.); elephant-creeper, (Argyreia speciosa); elephant grass, any of various kinds of grass or grasslike plants, esp. Pennisetum purpureum (also elephant's-grass); elephant's ear, the Begonia; elephant's foot, (a) a species of Yam (Testudinaria elephantipes); (b) a plant belonging to the genus Elephantopus; elephant's-trunk-plant, elephant's-vine (see quot.).
1866Treas. Bot., Feronia. The Wood-apple or Elephant-apple tree of India, F. elephantum, is the only species belonging to this genus of Aurantiaceae.
1832W. Roxburgh Flora Indica III. 566 Elephant grass... Elephants are fond of it. 1895B. M. Croker Village Tales 15 We marched two and two,..glancing askance at every bush, at every big tuft of elephant grass. 1906Westm. Gaz. 28 Dec. 2/1 Long grass in Uganda, ‘elephant grass’, grows from fifteen feet to twenty feet high. 1968J. W. Purseglove Tropical Crops II. 472 Elephant grass. Pennisetum purpureum Schum., is the common mulch.
1866Treas. Bot., Feronia. Elephant's-ear, the common name for Begonia. 1884Miller Plant-n., Elephant's-ear. The genus begonia.
1789W. Aiton Hortus Kewensis III. 280 Elephantopus scaber. Rough-leav'd Elephant's foot. Nat. of the East Indies. Cult. 1695, in Chelsea Garden. 1845–50A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. 186 The elephant's-foot (Elephantopus), a low, hairy-leaved plant, with purple, ligulate florets. 1872Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 271 Testudinaria elephantipes ..From the appearance of the rhizome it is called ‘Elephant's foot’ at the Cape of Good Hope. 1901C. T. Mohr Plant Life Alabama 759 Carolina Elephant's-Foot..[grows in] open dry woods, borders of fields, pastures. 1966H. W. Rickett Wild Flowers of U.S. I. 508 The genus Elephantopus—elephant's foot— is mainly tropical.
1884Miller Plant-n., Elephant's-trunk-plant, Martynia proboscidea.
Ibid. Elephant's Vine, Cissus latifolia.
▸ orig. U.S.the elephant in the room and variants: a big problem or controversial issue which is obviously present but ignored or avoided as a subject for discussion, usually because it is more comfortable to do so.
[1959N.Y. Times 20 June 19 Financing schools has become a problem about equal to having an elephant in the living room. It's so big you just can't ignore it.] 1984M. H. Typpo & J. M. Hastings (title) An elephant in the living room: a leader's guide for helping children of alcoholics. 1996Sunday Times (Nexis) 22 Dec. All the comment had missed the elephant in the room—and thus, despite the SIB's mild reform ideas, something like Sumitomo could happen again. 2001M. F. Green Schizophrenia Revealed i. 12 Accessory symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, became the elephant in the middle of the room. 2004N.Y. Times (National ed.) 29 Aug. iii. 4/4 When it comes to the rising price of oil, the elephant in the room is the ever-weakening United States dollar. |