Etymologically
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elephant

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɛlɪfənt/ (UK); /ˈɛləfənt/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English olyfaunt, borrowed from Old French olifant (“elephant, ivory”), elefant,[2][3][4] from Latin elephantus, from Greek ἐλέφας (eléphās, “elephant; ivory”) (genitive eléphantos),[2][3][5] a borrowed word of uncertain origin.[3][4] Etymonline suggests a non-Indo-European source, perhaps through Phoenician,[2] and Barnhart finds no plausible link with Latin ebur, ivory, or Egyptian āb, elephant.[3] The spelling was remodelled on Latin, elifant in the 14th century and elephant after 1550.[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal: probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder;[3] about 1300 in the OED.[6]

Semantic evolution

Old English had elpend, and elpendbān, ivory, but a confusion of exotic animals led to olfend, camel.[2][4][5] Ivory, elephant's teeth, is from 1398,[6] and Trench notes Chapman's use of elephant for ivory in his Odyssey.[7] A man of huge stature is figurative from 1606.[6] The white elephant, a burdensome possession, is from 1607, from a story about the kings of Siam.[6] The elephant as emblem of the US Republican Party is from 1860,[2][6] and to see the elephant, to see the world, American slang from 1835.[6] Collins records the elephant in the room, an obvious problem everyone ignores.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – olyfaunt.[3]
  • 1398 – ivory.[6]
  • 1550s – spelling elephant.[2]
  • 1607 – a white elephant.[6]
  • 1835 – to see the elephant.[6]
  • 1860 – the Republican emblem.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A very large plant-eating mammal of Africa or Asia with a long trunk, large ears and ivory tusks.
  2. (chiefly British) A size of paper, 23 by 28 inches.

Word family

  • elephantoid
  • chryselephantine
  • elephantiasis
  • elephantine
  • ivory
  • oliphant

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins