A very large land animal with thick gray skin, big ears, and a long trunk used for breathing, smelling, and grabbing things. Elephants are highly intelligent and live in social family groups.
From Latin 'elephantus,' from Greek 'elephas' meaning 'elephant' or 'ivory.' The word likely has even older roots in languages of the ancient Near East or Africa. It originally referred both to the animal and to the ivory taken from its tusks.
Elephants are so memorable that many languages use them in sayings, like 'the elephant in the room' for an obvious problem people avoid. Their name traveled through ancient trade routes along with ivory, long before most people ever saw the animal. In a way, the word itself migrated across continents, just like the elephants it names.
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