| 释义 |
elephantine, a.|ɛlɪˈfæntaɪn, -tɪn|
[ad. L. elephantin-us, a. Gr. ἐλεϕάντινος, f. ἐλέϕας elephant.]
1. Of or pertaining to an elephant, or elephants. elephantine epoch (Geol.): the period marked by the abundance of large pachydermata.
1675Hobbes Odyssey (1677) 239 Find a word of truth you never will In those that come through th' elephantine tooth. a1711Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 26 Their Garment was an Elephantine Hide. 1767Hunter Fossil Bones in Phil. Trans. LVIII. 46 It was true elephantine ivory. a1794Sir W. Jones Tales (1807) 180 Chaste elephantine bone By min'rals ting'd. 1862Huxley Lect. Wrkg. Men 145 An elephantine mammal. 1875Wonders Phys. World II. iv. 300 Fossil elephantine remains.
2. Elephant-like, resembling an elephant in action or manner; clumsy, unwieldy.
1845Hood Remonst. Ode ii, While poor elephantine I pick up a sixpence. 1860Holland Miss Gilbert ix. 146 Cattle..frisked in ungraceful, elephantine play. 1881Macm. Mag. XLIV. 478/2 The good-humour and somewhat elephantine spirits of the others were quite inexhaustible.
3. Resembling an elephant in size or strength; (of a task) requiring the strength of an elephant.
1630R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. (1641) 279 Wearing great sleeves, mishapen elephantine bodies, trains sweeping the earth. 1662Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 286 This elephantine birth [a book of seven volumes]. 1788Wesley Wks. (1872) VII. 24 Let there be..no elephantine hats or bonnets. 1849Stovel Canne's Necess. Introd. 81 Elephantine as its strength appeared..its back was broken. 1880Sat. Rev. 20 Mar. 387 The task of reviewing a dictionary must needs be elephantine.
4. elephantine leprosy: = elephantiasis. rare.
1843Borrow Bible in Spain xxvii. 161 Sad is leprosy in all its forms, but most so when elephantine.
5. Rom. Antiq. (see quot. 1751). Also allusive.
1695Ld. Preston Boeth. iii. 99 My Eye into each page shall look Of the Elephantine Book [note, the Book of Nature]. 1751Chambers Cycl., Elephantine..applied to certain books of the ancient Romans, wherein were recorded the transactions of the emperors, and the proceedings, acts, etc. of the senate. They were called elephantine, because composed of ivory leaves, or tablets. |