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white elephant (hwyt EL-uh-fent) noun
1. A possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of. 2. A possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its usefulness or value to the owner. 3. An abnormally whitish or pale elephant, usually found in Thailand; an albino elephant. [From the perhaps apocryphal tale that the King of Siam would award a disagreeable courtier a white elephant, the upkeep of which would ruin the courtier.] "Now an orchestra opening a new hall has reason to pray, solemnly and at length, that it will not be saddled with a white elephant with mediocre acoustics." Allan Kozinn, A Venerable Concert Hall That's the Belle of the Ball, The New York Times, Sep 30, 2000. This week's theme: animal words that are used figuratively. ............................................................................ It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) Subscribe: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html Unsubscribe: http://wordsmith.org/awad/unsubscribe.html Change address: http://wordsmith.org/awad/address-change.html Gift subscription: http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/white_elephant.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/white_elephant.ram
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