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 Phænician 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. ἐλαιον, ἐλοία.]
1. 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 Indian and African; the former (the largest of extant land animals) is often used as a beast of burden, and in war.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 854. Olifauns, and camelis, Weoren ycharged with vitailes.
1340. Ayenb., 84. Virtue makeþ man … strang ase olyfont. Ibid., 224. Þe elifans nele naȝt wonye mid his wyue, þerhuyle þet hi is mid childe.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. viii. 80. Mayst þou sourmounten þise olifuntz in gretnesse.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxviii. (1495), 138. The elyphaunt hath a longe nose lyke a trompe.
c. 1400. Maundev., xxii. 238. Olifauntz, tame and othere.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. xi. Elyphauntes and large Unicornes … Forged of brasse.
1481. Caxton, 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.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 383. The elephante (which sum caule an oliphant) is the biggest of all foure footed beastes.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., II. (1880), 24 b. Of Flyes they able are to make, great Eliphants in sight.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 113. The Elephant hath ioynts, but none for curtesie.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 345. Th’ unwieldy Elephant To make them Mirth … wreath’d His Lithe Proboscis.
1727. Thomson, Summer, 721. The huge Elephant, wisest of brutes.
1857. Livingstone, 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.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 2. Shall the Elephant Aiax carry it thus?
c. Elephant’s teeth (i.e., tusks): ivory.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. xxxiii. (1495), 480. Salomons seruauntes broughte … elephauntes teeth.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 73/3. The nauye of the kynge … brouht … teeth of Olyphauntes and grete richesses.
1562. Lanc. Wills, I. (1857), 183. A sett of chest men of oliphants teeth.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 2. A Frigot … her Lading Gold and Elephants teeth.
2. White elephant. a. (see quot.). 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).
1663. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Travels, xlviii. 274. The white elephant whereon he [the King of Siam] was mounted.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 451/2. White elephants … are kept in the stables of the king [of Siam], and treated with a kind of veneration.
1883. Croft, in Elyot’s Governor, I. Life 60. Elyot regarded this new dignity much as the gift of a white elephant.
3. As the sign of an inn; the modern ‘Elephant and Castle.’
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. iii. 39. In the South Suburbes, at the Elephant, Is best to lodge.
1852. Dickens, 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.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 1182. To mouth he set his olifaunt.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., XIX. 77/291. A Chaire … The substance Siluer, and rich Elephant.
1698. Dryden, Virg. Æneid, III. 595. Heavy Gold, and polished Elephant.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXI. 10. The handle … With steel and polish’d elephant adorn’d.
5. A Danish Order of Knighthood.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3895/2. The King of Denmark conferred the Order of the Elephant upon the Duke of Mecklembourg.
1751. Chambers, 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.
1837. Penny 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.
1798. Naval Chron. (1799), I. 254. The sea elephant … has been rather scarce.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 165. Macrorhinus proboscideus … Sea-Elephant and Elephant-Seal of the English.
† 7. A species of lizard mentioned by Pliny. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 451. Black Elephants … which be the black kind of the Lizards.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 176. There be also Serpents called Elephants, because whomsoeuer they bite, they infect with a kind of leprosie.
† 8. [after Pg. elephante: see ELEPHANTA.] ‘A name given originally by the Portuguese to violent storms occurring at the termination, though some travellers describe it as at the setting in, of the Monsoon’ (Yule). Obs.
[1554. Sidi ’Ali, 75 (Y.). The kind of storm is known under the name of the Elephant; it blows from the west.]
1616. Sir 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.
1703. T. S., Art’s Improv., Introd. 26. Eighthly, Of Winds, and Storms at Sea; as Trades-Winds, Huricanes,… Elephants, Mousoons.
9. Bot. A species of Scabious.
1847. in Halliw.
1878. Britten & Holland, Plant-n.
10. (more fully elephant-paper): A size of drawing and cartridge paper measuring 28 × 23 inches. Double elephant: a similar paper measuring 40 × 261/2 inches.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3814/4. On two large sheets of Elephant Paper. Ibid. (1716), No. 5493/4. The fine Imperial will not be sold under 7l. … and the Elephant 3l.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Arts, I. 238. A sheet of the largest elephant paper.
1807. Opie, Lect. Art, iv. (1848), 323. Writing … upon … double elephant … paper.
1870. Jevons, Elem. Logic, iv. 35. Elephant, in a stationer’s or bookseller’s shop, means a large kind of paper instead of a large animal.
1880. Daily Tel., 3 Dec., 2/1. ‘Elephant folio’—that is to say, of the fullest portfolio size.
11. attrib. and Comb., as elephant-horn, -keeper, -killer, -shed; elephant-headed, -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’s breath, a shade of color, light steel grey; elephant-fish (see quot.); elephant-gravel, gravel containing remains of elephants; elephant hawk-moth (see quot.); elephant-leg = ELEPHANTIASIS; elephant-paper (see 10); elephant-seal = Sea-elephant (see 6); elephant-shrew (see quot.); elephant-trumpet (see 4); elephant’s-tusks, a genus of gasteropodous mollusks belonging to the family Dentalidæ or tooth-shells.
1887. H. B. Woodward, 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.
1774. Goldsmith, Nat. Hist. (1776), VIII. 139. The *Elephant-beetle … is found in … Guiana and Surinam.
1777. Henly, in Phil. Trans., LXVII. 123. Thigh of the elephant beetle.
1884. Cassell’s Fam. Mag., March, 246/2. Dressed in grey, the shade known as *‘elephant’s breath.’
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), IV. 1283. Fish … known to seamen by the name of *elephant fish.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Elephant-fish. The Chimæra callorhynchus named from the proboscis-like process on its nose.
1852. E. Forbes, Lett., in Life Forbes, xiv. 505. The newer *elephant-gravel of these parts.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., ii. 52. Chærocampa elpenor, the *elephant hawk-moth.
1854. F. Hall, Rája-níti, Notes 1. *Elephant-headed … Gaṇeṡa, fulfil my desires.
1884. G. Y. Lagden, in 19th Cent., Feb., 252. A dozen *elephant-horns heralded forth that the royal party were in motion.
1799. Corse, in Phil. Trans., LXXXIX. 210. Besides these, the *elephant-keepers notice other varieties, which are less distinct.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 156. Neither haue they any other name for those dragons but *Elephant-killers.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 500. Your knees … are ioyntlesse and *Elephant-like in your obedience unto his precepts.
1859. J. Lang, Wand. India, 261. It [her tomb] was of stone, and had been taken away bodily, to pave the *elephant shed or camel yard.
1868. J. G. Wood, Homes without H., i. 15. The *Elephant Shrew of Southern Africa (Macroscelides typicus) a thick-furred, long-snouted, short-eared burrower.
b. Also in the names of various plants, as elephant-apple (see quot.); elephant-creeper, (Argyreia speciosa); elephant’s ear, the Begonia; elephant’s foot, a species of Yam (Testudinaria elephantipes); elephant’s-grass, a kind of reed-mace (Typha elephantum); elephant’s-trunk-plant, elephant’s-vine (see quot.).
1866. Treas. Bot., Feronia. The Wood-apple or Elephant-apple tree of India, F. elephantum, is the only species belonging to this genus of Aurantiaceae.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Elephant’s-ear. The genus begonia.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 271. Testudinaria elephantipes … From the appearance of the rhizome it is called ‘Elephant’s foot’ at the Cape of Good Hope.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Elephant’s-trunk-plant, Martynia proboscidea. Ibid., Elephant’s Vine, Cissus latifolia.
