ˈeləfənt noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English olifaunt, elephant, from Old French & Latin; Old French olifant elephant, ivory, from Latin elephantus, from Greek elephant-, elephas, perhaps of Hamitic origin; akin to Egyptian ˒ʾ b(w) elephant, ivory
1.
a. : any of certain thickset mostly very large nearly hairless four-footed mammals of the family Elephantidae especially of the genera Elephas and Loxodonta having the snout prolonged into a muscular trunk, two incisors in the upper jaw developed especially in the male into long curved tusks which furnish ivory, the head large with much diploic tissue and a well-developed brain, and the feet short and rounded with five toes
b. : an animal of the order Proboscidea — see mammoth , mastodon
2. : one that is an uncommonly large specimen of its kind
he was an elephant of a man
3. : a size of paper ranging from 20×27 to 23×30 inches
4. : a grooving and rabbeting machine
[s]elephant.jpg[/s] [
elephant: 1 African, 2 Asian
]