elephant

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A very large grey animal with a long trunk and big ears, found in Africa and Asia.

   We watched a herd of elephants drinking at the river.

Common collocations

• rogue elephant Adjective + noun

From Middle English elefant, elefaunt, from Old French elefant, elefan, olifant, re-latinized in Middle French as elephant, from Latin elephantus, from Ancient Greek ἐλέφᾱς (eléphās) (gen. ἐλέφαντος (eléphantos)). Believed to be derived from an Afroasiatic form such as Proto-Berber *eḷu (“elephant”) (compare Tamahaq êlu, Tamasheq alu) or Egyptian ꜣbw (“elephant; ivory”). More at ivory. Replaced Middle English olifant (from the aforementioned Old French form, from Vulgar Latin *olifantus), which replaced Old English elpend (“elephant”).

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images