different between mammoth vs ponderous

English

Etymology

From obsolete Russian ??????? (mámant), modern ??????? (mámont), probably from a Uralic language, such as Proto-Mansi *m???-o?t (“earth-horn”). Compare Northern Mansi ??? (m?, “earth”), ????? (?n?t, “horn”). Adjectival use was popularized in the early 1800s by references to the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese presented to American paleontologist and president Thomas Jefferson.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mæm??/

Noun

mammoth (plural mammoths)

1. Any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with long curved tusks and an inclined back, which became extinct with the last retreat of ice age glaciers during the late Pleistocene period, and are known from fossils, frozen carcasses, and Paleolithic cave paintings found in North America and Eurasia.
2. (obsolete) A mastodon.
3. (figuratively) Something very large of its kind.
   • 1973, Jeffrey Potter, Disaster by Oil (page 46)

     That is a lot of ship, about the the size of big tankers before they grew so rapidly to become supers, mammoths and oilbergs.

Translations

Descendants

• ? Arabic: ???????? (m?m??)
• ? Hebrew: ????????? (mamúta)
• ? Hindi: ???? (maimath)
• ? Japanese: ???? (manmosu)
• ? Khmer: ???????? (maammout)
• ? Korean: ??? (maemeodeu)
• ? Thai: ?????? (m?m-m???t)

Adjective

mammoth (comparative more mammoth, superlative most mammoth)

1. Comparable to a mammoth in its size; very large, huge, gigantic.
   • 1898, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, in Fables for the Frivolous (With Apologies to La Fontaine),

     “Ha! ha!” he proudly cried, “a fig / For this, your mammoth torso! / Just watch me while I grow as big / As you—or even more so!”

   • 1999, Albert Isaac Slomovitz, The Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains and American History, New York University Press, page 103.

Synonyms

• (very large): colossal, enormous, gigantic, huge, titanic
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• mammoth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin ponder?sus (“weighty”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?n.d??.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?n.d?.?s/

Adjective

ponderous (comparative more ponderous, superlative most ponderous)

1. Heavy, massive, weighty.
   • 1879, Julian Hawthorne, Archibald Malmaison, ch. 5:

     [H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.

   • c. 1920, Edgar B. P. Darlington, The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings, ch. 4:

     The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Serious, onerous, oppressive.
   • 1781, Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets, "Dryden":

     It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.

   • 1845, Charles Dickens, Pictures From Italy, ch. 11:

     In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.

   • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, ch. 19:

     For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity.

3. Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.
   • 1915, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Little Miss Grouch, ch. 10:

     Slowly, through an increasing glow that lighted land and water alike, the leviathan of the deep made her ponderous progress to the hill-encircled harbor.

   • 1919, Virginia Woolf, "Kew Gardens":

     Following his steps . . . came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous, the other rosy cheeked and nimble.

4. Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.
   • 1863, Elizabeth Gaskell, "Cousin Phillis":

     Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes.

   • 1918, Gene Stratton-Porter, A Daughter Of The Land, ch. 2:

     [A]s certainly as any one said anything in her presence that she had occasion to repeat, she changed the wording to six-syllabled mouthfuls, delivered with ponderous circumlocution.

5. (rare) Characterized by or associated with pondering.
   • c. 1660, Thomas Manton, "Sermon Upon John III" in Works of Thomas Manton (2002 edition), ?ISBN, p. 464:

     Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us.

   • 1804, The Literary Magazine and American Register, vol. 2, no. 7, p. 10:

     The acute and ponderous mind of Dr. Johnson was not always right in its decisions.

   • 1850, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, vol. 41, p. 242:

     They are the pleasantest of all companions, and perhaps the most affluent in correct opinions of men and things generally, although little addicted to ponderous consideration or deep research.

6. (obsolete) Dense.

Synonyms

• (heavy, massive): heavy, massive
• (serious, onerous): oppressive, serious

Derived terms

• ponderously
• ponderousness

Translations

Anagrams

• neuropods