different between elephantine vs pachyderm

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?l.?.?fæn.tin/, /?l.?.?fæn.t?n/, /?l.?.?fæn.ta?n/

Adjective

elephantine (comparative more elephantine, superlative most elephantine)

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of elephants.
   • 1989, H. T. Willetts (translator), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author), August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ?ISBN, page 179:

     This last summer Hanecki had captured Lenin’s imagination with his plans to found a trading company of his own in Europe, or take a partnership in some existing firm and make guaranteed monthly remittances to the Party out of his profits. This was not a Russian pipe dream: every move had been worked out with impressive precision. Kuba hadn’t thought of it himself, it was the brainchild of the elephantine genius Parvus, who had been writing to him from Constantinople. Parvus, once as poor as any other Social Democrat, had gone to Turkey to organize strikes, and now wrote frankly that he had all the money he needed (if rumor was right, he was fabulously wealthy) and that the time had come for the Party too to get rich.

2. Very large.

Synonyms

• (of or relating to elephants): elephantic, elephantlike
• (very large): See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Derived terms

• elephantine epoch
• elephantine leprosy
• elephantine tortoise

Translations

Latin

Adjective

elephantine

1. vocative masculine singular of elephantinus

English

Etymology

From French pachyderme, equivalent to pachy- (“thick”) +? -derm (“skin”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pæk.??d??(?)m/

Noun

pachyderm (plural pachyderms)

1. (obsolete, zoology) A member of the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata, grouping of thick-skinned, hoofed animals such as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant, pig and horse.
2. (informal) An elephant
3. (idiomatic) A person with thick skin; someone who is not affected by or does not care what others say about him or her.
4. (idiomatic) Someone who is insensitive.

Translations