White elephant

“White elephant” is a common idiom or metaphor.

You might hear someone describe something as a “bit of a white elephant” or say something like: “I have a white elephant on my hands”. If so, they are probably talking about something that costs a lot of money but isn’t at all useful.

Imagine you have a car. It might be an expensive car that looks really good, but if it is always breaking down and costs a lot to repair, you might refer to it as a white elephant.

Or perhaps a company has spent a lot of money building a new office block that no one wants. Its directors might say they have a white elephant on their hands.

I remember churches, schools or charities holding “white elephant sales” to raise money. They sold items that people donated because they no longer wanted them. Nowadays at Christmas time, there are apparently “white elephant parties” in the US, and perhaps in other countries, . Everyone brings a wrapped present and players take it in turns to choose, exchange and even “steal” presents until everyone goes home with one present – which might be something good or something completely useless – a white elephant.

The phrase “white elephant” appears to come from Thailand – or Siam, as it used to be called. White elephants were very rare and people regarded them as sacred and very valuable so the king claimed all the white elephants in the country. The king sometimes gave one of his white elephants away – not to people he liked but to people he didn’t like. The person who received the gift couldn’t sell or get rid of it because it was sacred. It wasn’t at all useful but cost a lot of money to look after, so a white elephant wasn’t something that anyone wanted.

Other elephant idioms include:

• Elephant in room
• An elephant never forgets
• Elephants’ graveyard
• Rogue elephant

We’ll look at these in future posts.

Posted by Graham