16 strange English idioms: let's talk about an elephant?

An obvious serious problem that no one mentions

For other uses, see Elephant in the room (disambiguation).

The expression " elephant in the room"

(or "
elephant in the living room
")[1][2] is a metaphorical idiom in English to denote an important or huge topic, question or controversial issue that is obvious or known to everyone. about it, but no one mentions or wants to discuss it because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and embarrassing, personally, socially or politically, controversial, inflammatory or dangerous. [3] [4]

It is based on the idea/thought that something as visible as an elephant can be overlooked in structured social interactions, and that the sociology/psychology of oppression also operates on a macro level. Different languages of the world have words that describe similar concepts.

Origin

This idiomatic expression may have been used much earlier than in 1959. For example, this phrase appeared 44 years earlier in the pages of the British Journal of Education

in 1915. The proposal was presented as a trivial illustration of a question that British schoolchildren might answer. may answer, for example, “Is there an elephant in the class?”

Before this, a slightly different version of the phrase was used: George Berkeley, in his debates with scientists, talked about whether there was an “invisible elephant in the room.”

This phrase may also be a response to philosopher Alfred North Whitehead's 1929 description of the reality of direct experience: “Sometimes we see an elephant, and sometimes we don't. As a result, the elephant, when present, is noticed.”

Notes[edit]

“elephant in the (living) room | meaning of elephant in (living) room in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE" www.ldoceonline.com
. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
"World Wide Words: The Elephant in the Room". World words
. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
Cambridge University Press. (2009). Cambridge Academic Dictionary, p. 298.
"The Elephant in the Room Idiom Definition - Grammar". grammarist.com
. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
^ ab Dostoevsky, Fyodor; Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 1821–1881. (1994). Demons: A Novel in Three Parts. lane Peavear, Richard, 1943-, Volokhonsky, Larisa. London: Vintage. pp. 718 and 38 respectively. ISBN 0-09-914001-2. OCLC 31657709 .CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
"OED, draft additions June 2006: elephant, n." POU. Retrieved November 11, 2008.
Martin, Gary. "'The Elephant in the Room' - The Meaning and Origin of the Phrase". Phrase search
. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
Journal of Education,
Vol. 37 (1915), p. 288.
"United States v. Antonelli Fireworks Co., 155 F.2d 631 (2d Cir. 1946)". Justia
. 1946-05-02.
"United States v. Leviton et al., 193 F.2d 848 (2d Cir. 1951)". Justia
. 1951-11-30.
↑
Of the Nature and Elements of the External World: or Universal Immaterialism, Fully Explained and Re-Demonstrated by Thomas Collins Simon, 1862, p.18
Process and Reality, page 6
Palta, Namrata. (2007). Spoken English: A detailed and simplified course for learning spoken English, page 95.
RCN Channel - Noticias RCN Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
"Articulo Archivado FRASES DEL AO". Archived from the original on 2012-09-10.
"'The Elephant in the Living Room Corner': Common Discrimination Linked to Depression Among Minority Children," AAPNews
(American Academy of Pediatrics).
May 8, 2010; O'Connor, P. (2008) 'The Elephant in the Corner: Gender and the Politics of Higher Education', Administration
[Institute of Public Administration Ireland] 56(1), pp. 85-110.
McDonald, J. F. (1993) "Russell, Wittgenstein and the Rhinoceros Problem" Southern Journal of Philosophy
31 (4) 409-24.

usage

This term refers to a question, problem, decision, or controversial issue that is obvious to everyone aware of the situation, but which is deliberately ignored because doing otherwise would cause great embarrassment, sadness, controversy, or simply taboo. The idiom may imply a value judgment that the problem should be discussed openly, or it may simply be an acknowledgment that the problem exists and will not go away on its own.

The term is often used to describe a socially taboo or divisive issue such as race, religion, politics, homosexuality, mental illness or suicide. This applies when the subject is emotionally charged; and the people who might have spoken out decide that it's probably best avoided.

Similar

A variation is the phrase "elephant in the corner", which is rarely used to the same effect.

Logician and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein used the example of the rhinoceros in the room to illustrate the impossibility of refuting negative existential statements, or perhaps a more subtle philosophical point.

Source

The effectiveness and efficiency of the COVID-19 vaccine is the elephant (not) in the room (“I didn’t notice the elephant”)

While attention has focused on vaccine effectiveness and comparisons of reductions in symptomatic cases, fully understanding the effectiveness and efficiency of vaccines is less straightforward than it may seem.
Depending on how effect size is expressed, a very different picture may emerge ( Figure ; Appendix ).
Vaccine effectiveness is usually described as relative risk reduction (RRR). It uses relative risk (RR)—that is, the ratio of attack rates with and without the vaccine—which is expressed as 1–RR. Ranking by reported efficacy results in a relative risk reduction of 95% for the Pfizer–BioNTech, 94% for Moderna–NIH, 90% for Gamaleya, 67% for J&J, and 67% for AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccines. However, RRR must be considered against the background of the risk of COVID-19 infection and disease, which varies between populations and over time. While the RRR considers only participants who would benefit from the vaccine, the absolute risk reduction (ARR), which is the difference between attack rates with and without the vaccine, considers the entire population. ARRs are generally ignored because they provide a much less dramatic effect than RRRs: 1·3% for AstraZeneca–Oxford, 1·2% for Moderna–NIH, 1·2% for J&J, 0·93% for Gamaleya and 0·84% for Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines.

ARR is also used to derive an estimate of vaccine effectiveness, which is the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one more case of COVID-19 as 1/ARR. NNVs give a different perspective: 76 for Moderna–NIH, 78 for AstraZeneca–Oxford, 80 for Gamaleya, 84 for J&J and 117 for Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines. The explanation is a combination of vaccine effectiveness and different background risks of COVID-19 in different studies: 0·9% for Pfizer–BioNTech, 1% for Gamaleya, 1·4% for Moderna–NIH, 1·8% for J&J and 1·9 % for AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccines.

ARR (and NNV) are sensitive to background risk—the higher the risk, the higher the effectiveness, as shown in an analysis of the J&J vaccine in centrally confirmed cases compared to all cases:

both the numerator and denominator change, the RRR does not change (66-67%), but an increase in the attack rate by one third in the unvaccinated group (from 1·8% to 2·4%) leads to a decrease in NNV by one quarter (from 84 up to 64).

There are many lessons that can be learned from the way research is conducted and results presented. Using only RRRs and omitting ARRS introduces reporting bias that influences interpretation of vaccine efficacy.

When communicating vaccine effectiveness, especially when making public health decisions such as choosing which type of vaccine to purchase and deploy, it is important to have a full picture of what the data actually shows and to ensure that comparisons are based on pooled evidence that puts vaccine trial results into context rather than just looking at one summary indicator. Such decisions must be properly supported by a detailed understanding of the study results, requiring access to complete data sets and independent verification and analysis.

Unfortunately, comparisons of vaccines based on currently available experimental (interim) data are further complicated by disparate study protocols, including primary endpoints (eg, what is considered a case of COVID-19 and when is it assessed), types of placebo, study populations, background risks COVID-19 during the study, duration of exposure, and various population definitions for both within- and between-study analyses, as well as endpoint definitions and statistical methods for assessing effectiveness. It is important to note that we have an unanswered question as to whether a vaccine with a given efficacy in the study population would have the same efficacy in another population with different levels of background COVID-19 risk. This is not a trivial issue because the intensity of transmission varies between countries, influenced by factors such as public health measures and virus variants. The only reported vaccine efficacy is from Israel's mass vaccination campaign using the Pfizer–BioNTech product. Although the design and methodology are radically different from a randomized trial,

Slonopedia–1. What does the phrase “pink elephant in the room” mean?

Let the Bible call the hippopotamus “the top of God’s ways,” and Western culture traditionally gives the title of “king of beasts” to the lion. But we... you and I know that the real “king of beasts” is the elephant.

It is he who embodies all the royal traits - power, grandeur, confident calm. And its “trumpet call” makes no less impression than the booming roar of a lion (it’s not for nothing that an elephant’s voice is often used in films to voice all sorts of monsters like dinosaurs).

African elephants Photo: Amoghavarsha J, wikipedia.org

D. “The Lord of the Rings”: “I am Oliphan - don’t touch me! I'm not a mouse, not a cat: I look a little like a tower And a little like a mountain. I move My pillar-legs as I go - And if I’m going somewhere, Don’t stand on the road!”

Not only lions, but also such heavyweights as rhinoceroses give way to the elephant. And if they don’t give in, then it’s more expensive for them.

B. Grzimek “Among the Animals of Africa”: “The ranger of the Kruger National Park (South Africa) Kuz Smith in 1960 witnessed a desperate fight between a male rhinoceros and an elephant. The elephant clearly decided not to let the rhinoceros get drunk, while he insisted on his own. During the struggle, both animals fell from a three-meter cliff into the river, however, they continued to fight in the water. And after some time, Kuz Smith found a dead rhinoceros. Huge pools of blood led to the place where he lay. There were four holes on his body, cut by tusks, not counting other, smaller wounds.”

There is nothing surprising here, considering that the elephant is currently the largest animal that travels on land. Its height can reach 4 m at the shoulders, and its weight can be 10 tons. It was just such a respectable specimen that was killed in 1955 in Angola, and now its stuffed specimen is displayed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.

From the film "Burenka from Maslenkino": - Maybe this is a good animal? Maybe he even has a soul? “He doesn’t look bad, only he’s very big!”

Anecdote: A mouse married an elephant, but he married him and died a day later. A mouse sits next to her husband’s body and sobs bitterly. They ask her: “Well, why are you so upset?” You only spent a day together? - Yeah! Lived a day, but bury it all your life!

It is not for nothing that the ancient Hindus believed that the Earth rests on the backs of four giant elephants, and when these elephants get tired and begin to move, earthquakes occur.

The size of these animals has found numerous expressions in sayings, popular expressions and idioms. Our compatriots will first remember Krylov’s fables - about the impudent dog Moska (“Ay, Moska! You know, she is strong, that she barks at the Elephant!”) and about the curious visitor to the Kunstkamera, who examined everything - right down to the insects, but “didn’t notice the elephant” .

No less popular in our country is the expression “Making a mountain out of a molehill” - that is, greatly exaggerating some insignificant event or fact. It is interesting that this saying is very ancient, and can be found even in the ancient Greek satirist Lucian.

Lucian “Praise of a Fly” (2nd century): “But I interrupt my speech, although I could say a lot more, lest anyone think that I, according to the proverb, make a molehill out of a molehill.”

Among philologists, such a linguistic game even appeared - turning the word “fly” into the word “elephant” by replacing just one letter. Moreover, each change must be a full word. Here is one example:

FLY - MURA - TURA - TARA - PAIR - PARK - SPIDER - SPIDER (one of the names of horseflies) - PLUT - RAFT - SLOT (a term from a computer game) - ELEPHANT

True, I have not yet come across a chain where some extremely rare or exotic words were not used.

Asian elephant Photo: Yathin S Krishnappa, wikipedia.org

The English language also has plenty of idioms that play on the size of an elephant.

For example, “find an elephant on the moon” (“find an elephant on the moon”) is similar to our saying “get your finger in the sky” (i.e. make some discovery by accident or stupidity).

Feng Shui meaning of an elephant figurine

What does an elephant in the house symbolize? Many qualities are attributed to the elephant, here are the main ones:

In addition to the qualities listed above, an elephant figurine can literally attract good luck into the house, just as a real living elephant draws in water with its trunk.

Even a small elephant can bring trust, love, harmony and warmth to your home. In addition, such a figurine promotes the influx of positive energy, which in the teachings of Feng Shui is called Qi energy.

An elephant, placed in a prominent place in your home, can protect household members from negative energy and eliminate problems and conflicts that exist in the family. In addition, this Feng Shui symbol is a literal generator of luck and stability.

Since an elephant is a standing animal, an elephant figurine can create a solid foundation for a sustainable lifestyle.

In addition to the above, it is believed that the elephant talisman is able to help its owner refrain from immoderate, thoughtless spending.

Make a good talisman yourself.

Yes, in this article we have already looked at many types, colors, materials from which Elephant figurines are made. But what to do if you cannot find such a figurine or have found it, but it does not quite meet your requirements. Let's find a way out and try to improve the situation with our own hands. If you still can’t buy the elephant figurine you need, you can try making it yourself. Take plasticine, polymer clay, or as a last resort, make a very salty dough (pour salt into flour, the same amount as flour, gradually add water and knead the dough, knead well, then sculpt, just like from plasticine), sculpt an elephant (children they will help you with pleasure), then bake the clay or dough in the oven, once your product has cooled down, paint your Elephant with acrylic paints. But that is not all. For those who wish money, wealth, abundance, load your good talisman with symbols of wealth: hang coins, tiny gold bars (these are sold in Feng Shui stores and can be 1-2 cm in size) on the Elephant’s back, square golden beads (look like gold), small chocolate squares (sold in candy stores), tiny money toad (these are sold for wallets or as pendants for a keychain), if you don’t find any, take small stones (brought from the sea), paint them with gold paint and load your elephant with them. In principle, anything that you associate with wealth and is small in size (in relation to the size of the elephant, maybe you will make yourself a large elephant, therefore hang larger symbols of wealth on its back), for example, if you do not want to burden your Elephant , then using gold paint and a thin brush, draw the Chinese character “Wealth” or “Money” or “Abundance” on his back or sides. If you need good luck and success in business, as well as fame and honor, hang small red flags on the sides of the Elephant, which can be made from red paper, and insert a red triangular flag into the trunk (the Elephant’s trunk should be raised up) ( make it from a red triangle of paper, and the shaft from a toothpick, for example), you can also hang tiny bells or put a small figurine of an eagle or a kite on the Elephant’s back (such figurines are sold in toy stores, in sets with birds). Naturally, if your desire is to find your love, improve or preserve an existing relationship, then hang or attach hearts, angels, roses and flowers to the backs of your (two) elephants. For any desires and goals: attach a small “mystical knot” to the elephant’s trunk (preferably, tie it yourself) (Link “Mystical knot - knot of prosperity”), draw an infinity symbol on the back (looks like a horizontal figure eight), you can put it on the Elephant’s back symbol of the year (for example, 2017) attach a small figurine of the Cockerel, or you can also knit it yourself or sew a blanket for your talisman, just decorate it more beautifully: embroider it with beads, bugles, red, gold (remember how richly kings, kings, etc. decorate their elephants all sorts of rich people?) Remember, decorate your elephant just as brightly, richly, beautifully, for your own good, and become rich, happy, abundant.

Where to put the elephant figurine

Where you place the purchased figurine will determine which aspects of your life it will most impact.

Once you have studied all the information presented, you have probably decided why you need the elephant figurine, for what purposes you will purchase it, and in what part of your home you will install it. Don’t forget to activate it and clean it from dust in a timely manner. Then the elephant will truly bring all the benefits that exist in the world! Good luck and prosperity to you!

Source

Links[edit]

Cambridge University Press. (2009). Cambridge Academic Dictionary
(Paul Hickok, editor). New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87143-3 / ISBN 978-0-521-69196-3; OCLC 183392531
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. (1994). Demons: a novel in three parts
(Richard Pevear and Larisa Volokhonskaya, translators). London: Vintage. ISBN 0-09-914001-2
__________. (1915). Journal of Education,
Vol. 37. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 1713625
Palta, Namrata. (2007). Spoken English: a detailed and simplified course for learning spoken English.
New Delhi: Lotus Press. ISBN 978-8-183-82052-3; OCLC 297508439

Elephant figurine according to Feng Shui - figurines and paintings depicting an elephant and where to put them

02/1/2018 Elena Feng Shui rules

Greetings, dear readers! We all try to bring harmony and prosperity into our lives, so today I decided to share with you some advice from an ancient practice - the elephant figurine in Feng Shui, its meaning and where to place it in a house or apartment to activate a favorable aura for good luck and attracting money.

From the article you will learn:

How to activate the talisman - Elephant.

Clean the Elephant figurine with an incense stick and place it on a red Chinese napkin with an auspicious hieroglyph in the selected place in your apartment. The main thing is that the figurine looks inside the apartment if you want to attract something positive to yourself. So, set it up, decorate your elephant with beads (hang it around his neck), beautiful chains or bright ribbons, you can put a few golden coins, semi-precious stones, etc. at his feet. Now pat the elephant on the back and tell him about your desire. From time to time, wipe the dust off your talisman, talk to it and your wish will definitely come true.

Feng Shui elephant - meaning of the symbol

Even in Ancient India, the elephant was revered as a symbol of wisdom, prudence and invincible strength; to Buddhists it carried spiritual knowledge, stability, stability; the Chinese revered it for its longevity, prudence, and insight. The Greeks and Romans considered this animal religious, and later Christians made it a victorious symbol of Christ over universal evil and death. Residents of medieval European countries treated the elephant, like the unicorn, as mythical animals that appear only on the pages of children's fairy tales. Let's figure out what an elephant is according to Feng Shui, the meaning and power of this talisman, who needs it, and where it is best to place it.

Elephant according to Feng Shui - meaning and where to place figurines

According to the ancient Chinese teaching about the harmonious movement of energy flows, this animal symbolizes only the best and most positive, despite the deceptive slow, heavy appearance:

In addition, according to Feng Shui, an elephant figurine is considered a kind of magnet that has the power of attraction to your home of financial wealth, and also protects you from unnecessary material expenses. The figurine can be replaced with a variety of paintings, photographs, canvases and talismans.

Which Feng Shui figurines and paintings with elephants should you choose?

Despite the variety of images, one of the main roles in them is played by the position of the trunk. For example, an elephant according to Feng Shui, the meaning “trunk up” carries financial connotations. Such a talisman will help you choose the right financial policy for the family. “Trunk down” symbolizes longevity, abundance, fertility.

A white elephant will help with problems in relationships between household members, and a mother elephant with a calf is suitable for a family planning to have a child soon. There are also often figures supplemented with elements of power, this could be a toad. But since Chinese teaching is considered the science of harmonious flow, it is still undesirable to overload the elephant, because it itself is a very powerful talisman.

Sometimes there is an opinion that, according to Feng Shui, an elephant with its trunk raised will bring good luck to its owner, in contrast to an animal with its trunk down, but this is far from the case. The main rule here is the correct choice of location for the figurine.

Feng Shui elephants, where to place them in the house

Where to put elephants in the house
To achieve certain goals, first of all, it is worth determining the place where the elephant should stand. After all, a lot depends on this choice.

You cannot place figurines in dark corners, next to torn dirty wallpaper, broken things, otherwise their energy may affect the figurines and drown out the positive influence.

How many elephants should there be in a house according to feng shui

We need to talk in more detail about how many elephants there should be in the house. There are many different opinions, but we will focus on the more common ones.

Seven elephants feng shui. What does this quantity mean?

Let's take a closer look at the set of figures consisting of 7 elephants. Their magical significance is difficult to overestimate and here's why.

Elephant figurine with trunk up feng shui

The number “7” appears very often in our lives. For example:

The primitive shepherds of Babylon, followed by the Sumerians, ancient Indians, Egyptians, and later the inhabitants of China and America began to consider this number special, distinguishing it from the entire digital series. Therefore, 7 Feng Shui figurines promise to achieve well-being in seven areas of life - wealth, longevity, love, luck, health, mutual understanding, universal happiness. They help to activate the right space in the home, bringing completeness and harmony.

What material to choose for an elephant according to Feng Shui

Different paintings are suitable - photographs, images on canvas, bamboo, paper, fabric and other materials. Figurines are most often made from natural materials - wood, clay, as well as metal, glass, plastic and porcelain. The main advisor when choosing this talisman will be only your intuition, because the thing should be liked specifically by you, “to your liking.” The only immutable taboo is figurines carved from ivory. This material is very negative, and the elephants themselves are charged with deadly energy, so they cannot bring anything good. Also, you should not store or glue broken or shattered talismans. It is best to replace them with new ones.

Source

Shhh. the elephant in the room!

There are often situations in our lives when everyone around us knows about some obvious problem, but prefers not to notice it. It was as if there was a huge elephant weighing 4 tons in our room, and everyone would pretend that it simply did not exist. The elephant in the room, on the contrary, requires an early resolution, and for this, each of us needs to learn not to turn a blind eye to unpleasant things, but to try to change them.

So, our phrase today...

The elephant in the room

"the elephant in the room"

Words:

Literal meaning:

Use:

It means that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people don't want to talk about.

Related articles: finishing the facade with thin bricks

This means that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people don't want to talk about.

To convey the meaning of the phrase “ the elephant in the room ”, in Russian we say “ a serious topic, a huge problem that no one wants to notice.”

For example:

1. But I think we should probably talk about the elephant in the room .

Although I think we should discuss this huge problem.

2. When I had dinner with my parents, the elephant in the room was the fact that I'm 45 years old and still single.

During dinner with my parents, everyone was thinking about the fact that I am 45 years old and still single, but no one brought up the topic .

Origin:

The exact origin of this phrase remains unknown, although many sources believe that it appeared relatively recently (only in the mid-20th century). In particular, the Oxford English Dictionary states that this idiom was first used in The New York Times on June 20, 1959.

Don’t be afraid of the elephant in the room , because if you don’t notice a huge problem, in the future it will become even bigger and even more significant. Be decisive!

Source