White elephant

{{Short description|Idiom for impractical possessions that are expensive to maintain but cannot be disposed of}}

File:Lord White Elephant.jpg Palace in 1855]]

A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc. considered expensive but without equivalent utility or value relative to its capital (acquisition) and/or operational (maintenance) costs.{{cite web|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/white%2Belephant |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510064252/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/white%2Belephant |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 May 2013 |title=Home : Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=oxforddictionaries.com |access-date=25 April 2013}}

Historical background

File:The White Elephant, Punch 103.png came to regard Uganda as a white elephant when internal conflict made administration of the territory impossible.]]

The term derives from the sacred white elephants kept by Southeast Asian monarchs in Burma, Thailand (Siam), Laos and Cambodia.[http://www.thailandelephant.org/en/royalstable.html "Royal Elephant Stable"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309020106/http://www.thailandelephant.org/en/royalstable.html |date=9 March 2021 }}. Thai Elephant Conservation Center. To possess a white elephant was regarded—and is still regarded in Thailand and Burma—as a sign that the monarch reigned with justice and power, and that the kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity. The opulence expected of anyone who owned a beast of such stature was great. Monarchs often exemplified their possession of white elephants in their formal titles (e.g., Hsinbyushin, {{lit|Lord of the White Elephant}} and the third monarch of the Konbaung dynasty).{{cite journal|last=Leider|first=Jacques P.|date=December 2011|title=A Kingship by Merit and Cosmic Investiture|journal=Journal of Burma Studies|volume=15|issue=2|doi=10.1353/jbs.2011.0012|s2cid=153995925|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_burma_studies/v015/15.2.leider.html}} Because the animals were considered sacred and laws protected them from labor, receiving a gift of a white elephant from a monarch was simultaneously a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because the animal was sacred and a sign of the monarch's favour, and a curse because the recipient now had an animal that was expensive to maintain, could not be given away, and could not be put to much practical use.

In the West, the term "white elephant", relating to an expensive burden that fails to meet expectations, was first used in the 17th century and became widespread in the 19th century.{{cite book|last1=Ammer|first1=Christine|title=The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition|date=2013|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0547677538|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9QuEiIMaBt0C&pg=PA495}} According to one source it was popularized following P. T. Barnum's experience with an elephant named Toung Taloung that he billed as the "Sacred White Elephant of Burma". After much effort and great expense, Barnum finally acquired the animal from the King of Siam only to discover that his "white elephant" was actually dirty grey in color with a few pink spots.{{cite book|last1=Harding|first1=Les|title=Elephant Story: Jumbo and P.T. Barnum Under the Big Top|date=1999|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=0786406321|page=110|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iDllhLZcF0IC&pg=PA110}}

The expressions "white elephant" and "gift of a white elephant" came into common use in the middle of the nineteenth century.{{cite web|last1=Brown|first1=Peter Jensen|title=Two-and-a-half Idioms – the History and Etymology of 'White Elephants'|url=http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/06/two-and-half-idioms-history-and.html|website=Early Sports 'n' Pop-Culture History Blog|date=23 June 2014|access-date=25 June 2014|archive-date=1 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301021211/https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/06/two-and-half-idioms-history-and.html|url-status=live}} The phrase was attached to "white elephant swaps" and "white elephant sales" in the early twentieth century.{{cite web|last1=Brown|first1=Peter Jensen|title=Two-and-a-Half More Idioms – "White Elephants" and Yankee Swaps|url=http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/06/two-and-half-more-idioms-white.html|website=Early Sports 'n' Pop-Culture History Blog|date=28 June 2014|access-date=3 July 2014|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108110506/https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/06/two-and-half-more-idioms-white.html|url-status=live}} Many church bazaars held "white elephant sales" where donors could unload unwanted bric-à-brac, generating profit from the phenomenon that "one man's trash is another man's treasure" and the term has continued to be used in this context.Roberta Jeeves, [https://www.whiteelephantrules.com/white-elephant-gift-around-house White Elephant Rules]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004091601/https://www.whiteelephantrules.com/white-elephant-gift-around-house/ |date=4 October 2017 }}.

= Modern usage =

File:Greystaneswaterbridge.jpg, Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia]]

In modern usage, the term now often refers in addition to an extremely expensive building project that fails to deliver on its function or becomes very costly to maintain.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2872499.stm|title=White elephants and worthwhile causes|date=5 June 2003|via=news.bbc.co.uk|access-date=12 September 2020|archive-date=23 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123061443/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2872499.stm|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/18/white-elephants-10-greatest-in-tempo|title=The 10 greatest white elephants | David Shariatmadari|first=David|last=Shariatmadari|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 July 2013|via=www.theguardian.com|access-date=4 January 2017|archive-date=28 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728070138/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/18/white-elephants-10-greatest-in-tempo|url-status=live}} Examples include prestigious but uneconomic infrastructure projects such as airports,{{cite news |last=Govan |first=Fiona |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8807723/Spains-white-elephants-how-countrys-airports-lie-empty.html |title=Spain's white elephants – how country's airports lie empty |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=5 October 2011 |access-date=7 January 2013 |location=London |archive-date=25 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825213045/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8807723/Spains-white-elephants-how-countrys-airports-lie-empty.html |url-status=live }} dams,{{cite web |url=http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/African%20Dams%20Briefings%202006.pdf |title=Dams as white elephants |access-date=14 April 2011 |archive-date=2 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002141159/http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/African%20Dams%20Briefings%202006.pdf |url-status=live }} bridges,{{cite news| url = http://fm.kuac.org/post/state-s-longest-bridge-nears-completion-budget-cuts-may-limit-army-s-ability-use-it| date = November 8, 2013| publisher = KUAC| title = State's Longest Bridge Nears Completion, But Budget Cuts May Limit Army's Ability to Use It| author = Tim Ellis| access-date = August 5, 2014| archive-date = 4 October 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171004085043/http://fm.kuac.org/post/state-s-longest-bridge-nears-completion-budget-cuts-may-limit-army-s-ability-use-it| url-status = live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10830905.html|title=Russian bridge of trouble opens to world | work=The New Zealand Herald}} shopping malls{{cite web |first=Adam |last=Taylor |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/new-south-china-mall-tour-a-ghost-mall-2013-3?op=1 |title=New South China Mall: Tour A Ghost Mall |website=Business Insider |date=5 March 2013 |access-date=14 March 2013 |archive-date=9 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309020001/http://www.businessinsider.com/new-south-china-mall-tour-a-ghost-mall-2013-3?op=1 |url-status=live }} and football stadiums.[http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1734573,00.html Guardian Online]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806002958/http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1734573,00.html |date=6 August 2007 }} – Guardian Article regarding Stadio delle Alpi March 2006.{{cite web |url=http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/sports/report/070710_worldcup_stadiums/ |title=World Cup: Are South Africa's stadiums white elephants? – The Sentinel |publisher=Tucsonsentinel.com |date=7 July 2010 |access-date=14 April 2011 |archive-date=8 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101108033534/http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/sports/report/070710_worldcup_stadiums |url-status=live }}{{cite news|url= https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/grande-80m-white-elephant-leaves-residents-peeved-6.2.1700526.1cf90bbdc0|title= Grande $80M white elephant leaves residents peeved |first= Joshua |last=Seemungal|work=Trinidad Guardian |date=May 7, 2023|access-date=November 21, 2024}} - news story about the Sangre Grande Regional Complex

Rail transport projects are also sometimes deemed white elephants. In Japan, it was feared that the Yurikamome at Odaiba would end up as a multibillion-yen white elephant.{{Cite web |last=Iwata |first=Kazuaki |date=June 1998 |title=Tokyo's New Waterfront Transit System |url=https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr16/pdf/f15_iwata.pdf |publisher=Japan Rail and Transport Review |access-date=14 May 2023 |archive-date=7 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207003316/http://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr16/pdf/f15_iwata.pdf |url-status=live }} In Singapore, paper cutouts of white elephants were placed next to the completed but unopened Buangkok MRT station on the North East Line in 2005 to protest its non-opening. (The station eventually opened the following year.){{cite web |url=https://www.safetrolley.com/residents-bring-up-white-elephant-buangkok-mrt/ |title=Residents Bring Up 'White Elephant' Buangkok MRT During Minister's Visit |publisher=SafeTrolley |date=7 November 2020 |accessdate=2022-08-02 |archive-date=3 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703092740/https://www.safetrolley.com/residents-bring-up-white-elephant-buangkok-mrt/ |url-status=live }}

The American Oakland Athletics baseball team has used a white elephant as a symbol and usually its main or alternative logo since 1902, originally in sarcastic defiance of John McGraw's 1902 characterization of the new team as a "white elephant".{{cite web |url=https://baseballhall.org/discover/elephant-in-the-room |title=The Elephant in the Room |author=John Odell |publisher=Baseball Hall of Fame |accessdate=April 18, 2021 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418203249/https://baseballhall.org/discover/elephant-in-the-room |url-status=live }} The Al Maktoum International Airport on the outskirts of Dubai has also been named a white elephant.{{cite web|url=https://www.flightglobal.com/after-boris-island-10-other-airport-follies/114351.article|title=After 'Boris Island': 10 other airport follies|access-date=12 February 2022|archive-date=30 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630165830/https://www.flightglobal.com/after-boris-island-10-other-airport-follies/114351.article|url-status=live}} The Roman-styled Boothtown Aqueduct in Sydney, which was opened in 1888, has been referred to as a "white elephant" for its failure to operate as a long-serving aqueduct.{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/what-did-romans-ever-do-for-sydney-aqueducts-gravity-carried-water-20220728-p5b5hm.html|title= What did Romans ever do for Sydney? Aqueducts, gravity carried water|access-date=14 October 2024|author=Julie Power|publisher = Sydney Morning Herald}}

The term has also been applied to outdated or under-performing military projects like the U.S. Navy's Alaska-class cruiser.{{cite book|author1=Morison, Samuel Loring |author2=Morison, Samuel Eliot |author3=Polmar, Norman | title=Illustrated Directory of Warships of the World: From 1860 to the Present |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |isbn=1-85109-857-7 |page=85}}{{cite web |title=Looking more like white elephant |publisher=Agence France-Presse |date=14 January 2011 |url=http://www.defencetalk.com/f-35-looking-more-like-white-elephant-31347/ |access-date=17 April 2011 |archive-date=17 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317131531/http://www.defencetalk.com/f-35-looking-more-like-white-elephant-31347/ |url-status=live }} In Austria, the term "white elephant" means workers who have little or no use, but cannot be dismissed.:de:Weißer Elefant#Redewendung{{Circular reference|date=December 2017}}

A former Polish astronomical observatory built in the Carpathian Mountains (now part of Ukraine) in 1938 is nicknamed White Elephant due to its appearance.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline|White elephants}}

Category:English-language idioms

Category:Metaphors referring to elephants

Category:Public choice theory

White elephant

Historical background

= Modern usage =

See also

References

Further reading

External links