Elephant

Elephant. Pronunciation: 'e-l&-f&nt
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural elephants also elephant
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French olifant, from Latin elephantus, from Greek elephant-, elephas
1 : any of a family (Elephantidae, the elephant family) of thickset usually extremely large nearly hairless herbivorous mammals that have a snout elongated into a muscular trunk and two incisors in the upper jaw developed especially in the male into large ivory tusks and that include two living forms and various extinct relatives: as a : a tall large-eared mammal (Loxodonta africana) of tropical Africa -- called also African elephant b : a relatively small-eared mammal (Elephas maximus) of forests of southeastern Asia -- called also Asian elephant, Indian elephant
2 : an animal or fossil related to the elephants
3 : one that is uncommonly large or hard to manage
4 : an issue that is extremely obvious to a group of people, but which is very carefully not being discussed
5: a startup company that, while being right at the forefront of tech trends being batted around as "the next big thing" as defined by prestigious VCs, hasn't yet found the proper magical incantations that get those same VCs to stop yakkin' in their blogs and start writin' checks.

Posted by brian at January 5, 2005 08:33 AM