different between giant vs elephant

English

Alternative forms

• giaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English geaunt, geant, from Old French geant, gaiant (Modern French géant) from Vulgar Latin *gag?s, gagant-, from Latin gig?s, gigant-, from Ancient Greek ????? (gígas, “giant”) Cognate to giga- (“1,000,000,000”).

Displaced native Middle English eten, ettin (from Old English ?oten), and Middle English eont (from Old English ent).

Compare Modern English ent (“giant tree-man”) and Old English þyrs (“giant, monster, demon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?a?.?nt/
  • (dialectal, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?d?a?nt/
• Rhymes: -a??nt
• Hyphenation: gi?ant

Noun

giant (plural giants)

1. A mythical human of very great size.
2. (mythology) Specifically:
   1. Any of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
   2. A jotun.
3. A very tall and large person.
4. A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
5. (astronomy) A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature (e.g. red giant, blue giant).
6. (computing) An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
7. A very large organisation.
8. A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
   • 1988, Thomas Dolby, "Airhead":

     she's not the intellectual giant

Synonyms

See also: Thesaurus:giant

Translations

Adjective

giant (not comparable)

1. Very large.

Synonyms

• colossal, enormous, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Antonyms

• dwarf
• midget

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• TA'ing, TAing, Taing, anti-g, tagin, tangi, tiang, tinga

English

Etymology

From Middle English elefant, elefaunt, from Old French elefant, elefan, olifant, re-latinized in Middle French as elephant, from Latin elephantus, from Ancient Greek ?????? (eléph?s) (gen. ????????? (eléphantos)). Believed to be derived from an Afroasiatic form such as Proto-Berber *e?u (“elephant”) (compare Tahaggart Tamahaq êlu, Tamasheq alu) or Egyptian ?bw (“elephant; ivory”). More at ivory. Replaced Middle English olifant (from the aforementioned Old French form, from Vulgar Latin *olifantus), which replaced Old English elpend (“elephant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??l?f?nt/, /??l?f?nt/

Noun

elephant (countable and uncountable, plural elephants)

1. A mammal of the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and two large ivory tusks jutting from the upper jaw.
2. (in particular) Any member of the family Elephantidae not also of the genus Mammuthus.
3. (figuratively) Anything huge and ponderous.
4. (paper, printing) Synonym of elephant paper
5. (Britain, childish) used when counting to add length, so that each count takes about one second

   Let's play hide and seek. I'll count. One elephant, two elephant, three elephant...

6. (uncountable, obsolete) Ivory.

   • He sent rich gifts of elephant and gold.

Synonyms

• (animal): Elephas maximus, Loxodonta africana
• (counting term): see Appendix:Words used as placeholders to count seconds

Hyponyms

• (animal): African bush elephant, African forest elephant, Indian elephant, African elephant

Derived terms

Descendants

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• elephant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Elephant (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• heptenal

Middle French

Noun

elephant m (plural elephans)

1. elephant (animal)

Descendants

• French: éléphant
  • Haitian Creole: elefan
  • ? Romanian: elefant
• ? Irish: eilifint
• ? Norman: êléphant, éléphant