elephant trap

English

WOTD – 5 May 2022

Etymology

Emmanuel Frémiet, Jeune éléphant pris au piège (Young Elephant Caught in a Trap, 1878). The term elephant trap is used figuratively to mean a trap that only inexperienced or incompetent people would fall for.

From elephant +‎ trap, alluding to the fact that a trap for an elephant needs to be quite large, and so ought to be easily seen.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛlɪf(ə)nt ˌtɹæp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛləfənt ˌtɹæp/
• Hyphenation: ele‧phant trap

Noun

elephant trap (plural elephant traps) (figuratively)

1. A trap which can easily be avoided by a competent person, and thus proves the incompetence of anybody trapped by it.

   To show he doesn’t do his fair share of work, I’ve set him an elephant trap. If he falls in he’ll look like a clown.

2. (chess) Often in the form Elephant Trap: a faulty attempt by White to win a pawn in a popular variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, which is generally only effective against inexperienced players.

Translations

trap easily avoided by a competent person

(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn

• Catalan: parany de l'elefant m, trampa de l'elefant f
• French: piège de l’éléphant m
• Malayalam: എലിഫന്റ് ട്രാപ്പ് (eliphanṟŭ ṭrāppŭ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сло̀новска за̑мка f

  Roman: slònovska zȃmka f

• Tamil: யானைப் பொறி (yāṉaip poṟi)
• Vietnamese: bẫy elephant

Further reading

• Queen's Gambit Declined, Elephant Trap on Wikipedia.Wikipedia