elephant in the room
English
editEtymology
editLikely 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
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
editelephant in the room (plural elephants in the room)
- (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)[1]:
- 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[2]:
- While the Swiss bank remained positive on the sector through 2022, the coronavirus situation remained “the elephant in the room,” he added.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editproblem that is obvious but ignored
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References
edit- ^ Michael Quinion (1996–2024) “Elephant in the room”, in World Wide Words.
- ^ Sabine Fiedler: Gläserne Decke und Elefant im Raum - Phraseologische Anglizismen im Deutschen. Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2014, S. 92–96.
Further reading
edit- elephant in the room on Wikipedia.Wikipedia