Elephant
The Greek elephas, “elephant”, probably came from the Phoenician term for the animal, elu (a word found in many languages in north Africa), although it might possibly have been from Sanskrit ibhah. Elephas was the nominative form in Greek, while the genitive was elephantos, “elephant’s”, which could refer to both the animal and its ivory tusks. Latin borrowed the word as elephantus, and this became oliphant in Old French (this was the source of Tolkien’s oliphaunts). This was borrowed into English as olyfaunt in the 1300’s, but the spelling was changed to elephant after 1550 to reflect the Latin source more closely.
Both the strength and gregariousness of the elephant is reflected in the short “e”’s surrounding the “l”, which in turn signifies the elephant’s size and expansiveness. The final syllable, “fant”, suggests a balanced energy arising from freedom, which is directed and narrowed toward a target. This may be a reference to the famously unattached lives of the bull elephants, as well as their intelligence.
