A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc. considered expensive but without equivalent utility or value relative to its capital (acquisition) and/or operational (maintenance) costs.[1]
A white elephant at the Amarapura Palace in 1855The British East Africa Company came to regard Uganda as a white elephant when internal conflict made administration of the territory impossible.
The term derives from the sacred white elephants kept by Southeast Asian monarchs in Burma, Thailand (Siam), Laos and Cambodia.[2] To possess a white elephant was regarded—and is still regarded in Thailand and Burma—as a sign that the monarch reigned with justice and power, and that the kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity. The opulence expected of anyone who owned a beast of such stature was great. Monarchs often exemplified their possession of white elephants in their formal titles (e.g., Hsinbyushin, lit.'Lord of the White Elephant' and the third monarch of the Konbaung dynasty).[3] Because the animals were considered sacred and laws protected them from labor, receiving a gift of a white elephant from a monarch was simultaneously a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because the animal was sacred and a sign of the monarch's favour, and a curse because the recipient now had an animal that was expensive to maintain, could not be given away, and could not be put to much practical use.
In the West, the term "white elephant", relating to an expensive burden that fails to meet expectations, was first used in the 17th century and became widespread in the 19th century.[4] According to one source it was popularized following P. T. Barnum's experience with an elephant named Toung Taloung that he billed as the "Sacred White Elephant of Burma". After much effort and great expense, Barnum finally acquired the animal from the King of Siam only to discover that his "white elephant" was actually dirty grey in color with a few pink spots.[5]
The expressions "white elephant" and "gift of a white elephant" came into common use in the middle of the nineteenth century.[6] The phrase was attached to "white elephant swaps" and "white elephant sales" in the early twentieth century.[7] Many church bazaars held "white elephant sales" where donors could unload unwanted bric-à-brac, generating profit from the phenomenon that "one man's trash is another man's treasure" and the term has continued to be used in this context.[8]
In modern usage, the term now often refers in addition to an extremely expensive building project that fails to deliver on its function or becomes very costly to maintain.[9][10]
Examples include prestigious but uneconomic infrastructure projects such as airports,[11] dams,[12] bridges,[13][14] shopping malls[15] and football stadiums.[16][17] The American Oakland Athletics baseball team has used a white elephant as a symbol and usually its main or alternate logo since 1902, originally in sarcastic defiance of John McGraw's 1902 characterization of the new team as a "white elephant".[18] The Al Maktoum International Airport on the outskirts of Dubai has also been named a white elephant.[19] Examples of rail-related white elephants include in Japan, where it was feared that the Yurikamome at Odaiba would end up as a multibillion-yen white elephant,[20] and in Singapore, paper cutouts of white elephants were placed next to the completed but unopened Buangkok MRT station on the North East Line in 2005, in protest at its non-opening. The station eventually opened the following year.[21]White Elephant is also a name of a former Polish astronomical observatory built in the Carpathian Mountains in 1938 (now Ukraine).
The term has also been applied to outdated or underperforming military projects like the U.S. Navy's Alaska-class cruiser.[22][23] In Austria, the term "white elephant" means workers who have little or no use, but cannot be dismissed.[24][circular reference]
^. oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
^"Royal Elephant Stable" 9 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Thai Elephant Conservation Center.
^Leider, Jacques P. (December 2011). "A Kingship by Merit and Cosmic Investiture". Journal of Burma Studies. 15 (2). doi:10.1353/jbs.2011.0012. S2CID 153995925.
^Ammer, Christine (2013). The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN978-0547677538.
^Harding, Les (1999). Elephant Story: Jumbo and P.T. Barnum Under the Big Top. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 110. ISBN0786406321.
^Brown, Peter Jensen (23 June 2014). "Two-and-a-half Idioms – the History and Etymology of 'White Elephants'". Early Sports 'n' Pop-Culture History Blog. from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
^Brown, Peter Jensen (28 June 2014). "Two-and-a-Half More Idioms – "White Elephants" and Yankee Swaps". Early Sports 'n' Pop-Culture History Blog. from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
^Roberta Jeeves, White Elephant Rules. 4 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
^"White elephants and worthwhile causes". 5 June 2003. from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2020 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
^Shariatmadari, David (18 July 2013). "The 10 greatest white elephants | David Shariatmadari". The Guardian. from the original on 28 July 2022. Retrieved 4 January 2017 – via www.theguardian.com.
^Govan, Fiona (5 October 2011). "Spain's white elephants – how country's airports lie empty". The Daily Telegraph. London. from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
^"Dams as white elephants" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
^Tim Ellis (8 November 2013). "State's Longest Bridge Nears Completion, But Budget Cuts May Limit Army's Ability to Use It". KUAC. from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
^"Russian bridge of trouble opens to world". The New Zealand Herald.
^Taylor, Adam (5 March 2013). "New South China Mall: Tour A Ghost Mall". Business Insider. from the original on 9 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
^Guardian Online. 6 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine – Guardian Article regarding Stadio delle Alpi March 2006.
^"World Cup: Are South Africa's stadiums white elephants? – The Sentinel". Tucsonsentinel.com. 7 July 2010. from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
^John Odell. "The Elephant in the Room". Baseball Hall of Fame. from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
^"After 'Boris Island': 10 other airport follies". from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
^Iwata, Kazuaki (June 1998). "Tokyo's New Waterfront Transit System" (PDF). Japan Rail and Transport Review. (PDF) from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
^"Residents Bring Up 'White Elephant' Buangkok MRT During Minister's Visit". SafeTrolley. 7 November 2020. from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
^Morison, Samuel Loring; Morison, Samuel Eliot; Polmar, Norman (2005). Illustrated Directory of Warships of the World: From 1860 to the Present. ABC-CLIO. p. 85. ISBN1-85109-857-7.
^"Looking more like white elephant". Agence France-Presse. 14 January 2011. from the original on 17 March 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
Jeffrey A. McNeely; Paul Spencer Sochaczewski (1995). "Chapter 9: Ganesh the Potbellied Elephant God". Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Nature's Answers in Southeast Asia (Reprint ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 91–112. ISBN9780824816698. OCLC 299810414. Contains a chapter on the white elephant in Southeast Asia.
Paul Spencer Sochaczewski (2008). The Sultan and the Mermaid Queen: Surprising Asian People, Places, and Things That Go Bump in the Night. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet. pp. 69–164. ISBN9789814217743. OCLC 259252939. Contains a long chapter on how Burmese generals tried to use the white elephant to consolidate power, also looks at the cosmological origins of the animal.
External linksedit
Look up white elephant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Media related to White elephants at Wikimedia Commons
April 25, 2024
white, elephant, other, uses, disambiguation, white, elephant, possession, that, owner, cannot, dispose, without, extreme, difficulty, whose, cost, particularly, that, maintenance, proportion, usefulness, modern, usage, metaphor, used, describe, object, constr. For other uses see White elephant disambiguation A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty and whose cost particularly that of maintenance is out of proportion to its usefulness In modern usage it is a metaphor used to describe an object construction project scheme business venture facility etc considered expensive but without equivalent utility or value relative to its capital acquisition and or operational maintenance costs 1 Contents 1 Background 2 See also 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External linksBackground editSee also White elephant animal nbsp A white elephant at the Amarapura Palace in 1855 nbsp The British East Africa Company came to regard Uganda as a white elephant when internal conflict made administration of the territory impossible The term derives from the sacred white elephants kept by Southeast Asian monarchs in Burma Thailand Siam Laos and Cambodia 2 To possess a white elephant was regarded and is still regarded in Thailand and Burma as a sign that the monarch reigned with justice and power and that the kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity The opulence expected of anyone who owned a beast of such stature was great Monarchs often exemplified their possession of white elephants in their formal titles e g Hsinbyushin lit Lord of the White Elephant and the third monarch of the Konbaung dynasty 3 Because the animals were considered sacred and laws protected them from labor receiving a gift of a white elephant from a monarch was simultaneously a blessing and a curse It was a blessing because the animal was sacred and a sign of the monarch s favour and a curse because the recipient now had an animal that was expensive to maintain could not be given away and could not be put to much practical use In the West the term white elephant relating to an expensive burden that fails to meet expectations was first used in the 17th century and became widespread in the 19th century 4 According to one source it was popularized following P T Barnum s experience with an elephant named Toung Taloung that he billed as the Sacred White Elephant of Burma After much effort and great expense Barnum finally acquired the animal from the King of Siam only to discover that his white elephant was actually dirty grey in color with a few pink spots 5 The expressions white elephant and gift of a white elephant came into common use in the middle of the nineteenth century 6 The phrase was attached to white elephant swaps and white elephant sales in the early twentieth century 7 Many church bazaars held white elephant sales where donors could unload unwanted bric a brac generating profit from the phenomenon that one man s trash is another man s treasure and the term has continued to be used in this context 8 In modern usage the term now often refers in addition to an extremely expensive building project that fails to deliver on its function or becomes very costly to maintain 9 10 Examples include prestigious but uneconomic infrastructure projects such as airports 11 dams 12 bridges 13 14 shopping malls 15 and football stadiums 16 17 The American Oakland Athletics baseball team has used a white elephant as a symbol and usually its main or alternate logo since 1902 originally in sarcastic defiance of John McGraw s 1902 characterization of the new team as a white elephant 18 The Al Maktoum International Airport on the outskirts of Dubai has also been named a white elephant 19 Examples of rail related white elephants include in Japan where it was feared that the Yurikamome at Odaiba would end up as a multibillion yen white elephant 20 and in Singapore paper cutouts of white elephants were placed next to the completed but unopened Buangkok MRT station on the North East Line in 2005 in protest at its non opening The station eventually opened the following year 21 White Elephant is also a name of a former Polish astronomical observatory built in the Carpathian Mountains in 1938 now Ukraine The term has also been applied to outdated or underperforming military projects like the U S Navy s Alaska class cruiser 22 23 In Austria the term white elephant means workers who have little or no use but cannot be dismissed 24 circular reference See also editWhite elephant gift exchange Hills Like White Elephants Bridge to nowhere Escalation of commitment sunk cost fallacy Pork barrel Abul AbbasReferences edit Home Oxford English Dictionary oxforddictionaries com Archived from the original on 10 May 2013 Retrieved 25 April 2013 Royal Elephant Stable Archived 9 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine Thai Elephant Conservation Center Leider Jacques P December 2011 A Kingship by Merit and Cosmic Investiture Journal of Burma Studies 15 2 doi 10 1353 jbs 2011 0012 S2CID 153995925 Ammer Christine 2013 The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms Second Edition Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN 978 0547677538 Harding Les 1999 Elephant Story Jumbo and P T Barnum Under the Big Top Jefferson N C McFarland p 110 ISBN 0786406321 Brown Peter Jensen 23 June 2014 Two and a half Idioms the History and Etymology of White Elephants Early Sports n Pop Culture History Blog Archived from the original on 1 March 2021 Retrieved 25 June 2014 Brown Peter Jensen 28 June 2014 Two and a Half More Idioms White Elephants and Yankee Swaps Early Sports n Pop Culture History Blog Archived from the original on 8 November 2020 Retrieved 3 July 2014 Roberta Jeeves White Elephant Rules Archived 4 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine White elephants and worthwhile causes 5 June 2003 Archived from the original on 23 January 2021 Retrieved 12 September 2020 via news bbc co uk Shariatmadari David 18 July 2013 The 10 greatest white elephants David Shariatmadari The Guardian Archived from the original on 28 July 2022 Retrieved 4 January 2017 via www theguardian com Govan Fiona 5 October 2011 Spain s white elephants how country s airports lie empty The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 25 August 2012 Retrieved 7 January 2013 Dams as white elephants PDF Archived PDF from the original on 2 October 2011 Retrieved 14 April 2011 Tim Ellis 8 November 2013 State s Longest Bridge Nears Completion But Budget Cuts May Limit Army s Ability to Use It KUAC Archived from the original on 4 October 2017 Retrieved 5 August 2014 Russian bridge of trouble opens to world The New Zealand Herald Taylor Adam 5 March 2013 New South China Mall Tour A Ghost Mall Business Insider Archived from the original on 9 March 2013 Retrieved 14 March 2013 Guardian Online Archived 6 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine Guardian Article regarding Stadio delle Alpi March 2006 World Cup Are South Africa s stadiums white elephants The Sentinel Tucsonsentinel com 7 July 2010 Archived from the original on 8 November 2010 Retrieved 14 April 2011 John Odell The Elephant in the Room Baseball Hall of Fame Archived from the original on 18 April 2021 Retrieved 18 April 2021 After Boris Island 10 other airport follies Archived from the original on 30 June 2022 Retrieved 12 February 2022 Iwata Kazuaki June 1998 Tokyo s New Waterfront Transit System PDF Japan Rail and Transport Review Archived PDF from the original on 7 December 2022 Retrieved 14 May 2023 Residents Bring Up White Elephant Buangkok MRT During Minister s Visit SafeTrolley 7 November 2020 Archived from the original on 3 July 2022 Retrieved 2 August 2022 Morison Samuel Loring Morison Samuel Eliot Polmar Norman 2005 Illustrated Directory of Warships of the World From 1860 to the Present ABC CLIO p 85 ISBN 1 85109 857 7 Looking more like white elephant Agence France Presse 14 January 2011 Archived from the original on 17 March 2011 Retrieved 17 April 2011 de Weisser Elefant RedewendungFurther reading editJeffrey A McNeely Paul Spencer Sochaczewski 1995 Chapter 9 Ganesh the Potbellied Elephant God Soul of the Tiger Searching for Nature s Answers in Southeast Asia Reprint ed Honolulu University of Hawaii Press pp 91 112 ISBN 9780824816698 OCLC 299810414 Contains a chapter on the white elephant in Southeast Asia Paul Spencer Sochaczewski 2008 The Sultan and the Mermaid Queen Surprising Asian People Places and Things That Go Bump in the Night Singapore Editions Didier Millet pp 69 164 ISBN 9789814217743 OCLC 259252939 Contains a long chapter on how Burmese generals tried to use the white elephant to consolidate power also looks at the cosmological origins of the animal External links edit nbsp Look up white elephant in Wiktionary the free dictionary nbsp Media related to White elephants at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title White elephant amp oldid 1216390811, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
