elephant in the room

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English

Etymology

Likely US origin, or possibly from Ivan Andreyevich Krylov's 1814 fable, The Inquisitive Man, which tells of a man going to a museum and noticing all sorts of things apart from an elephant.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

elephant in the room (plural elephants in the room)

  1. (idiomatic) A problem or difficult issue that is very obvious, but is ignored for the convenience or comfort of those involved.
    Synonyms: 800-pound gorilla, gorilla in the room
    • 2008 January 6, Nicholas Rufford, “Motormouth: The car of the future, at £1,300”, in Sunday Times (UK)‎:
      There is an elephant in the room that nearly every politician and green campaigner is ignoring. It’s called population growth.
    • 2022 January 17, Martin Choi, “Macau’s gaming law reforms positive for casino industry, but outlook clouded by Covid-19 uncertainty, UBS, JPMorgan analysts say”, in South China Morning Post‎:
      While the Swiss bank remained positive on the sector through 2022, the coronavirus situation remained “the elephant in the room,” he added.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Michael Quinion (1996–2024) “Elephant in the room”, in World Wide Words.
  2. ^ Sabine Fiedler: Gläserne Decke und Elefant im Raum - Phraseologische Anglizismen im Deutschen. Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2014, S. 92–96.

Further reading

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