emperor's new clothes

English

Etymology

After The Emperor's New Clothes, a tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

the emperor's new clothes pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic) Something obvious and embarrassing that is politely ignored or that goes unacknowledged.

   Synonym: elephant in the room

   • 2005 May 26, “Is an M&S suit the emperor's new clothes?”, in The Guardian, UK:

     Marks & Spencer announced a 19% fall in annual profits on Tuesday.

   • 2005 July 31, Jeff Sabatini, “2006 Lexus RX 400h: The hybrid emperor's new clothes”, in New York Times:

Translations

something obvious and embarrassing that is politely ignored

• Danish: kejserens nye klæder n pl
• Finnish: keisarin uudet vaatteet
• Hungarian: a császár új ruhája
• Japanese: 裸の王様 (はだか・の・おおさま hadaka-no-ōsama)
• Norwegian: keiserens nye klær
• Polish: nowe szaty króla nvir pl, nowe szaty cesarza nvir pl
• Portuguese: roupa nova do imperador f, roupas novas do imperador f
• Slovak: cisárove nové šaty
• Swedish: kejsarens nya kläder
• Vietnamese: bộ quần áo mới của hoàng đế

See also

• acknowledge the corn
• paromologia
• paromology

Further reading

• “emperor's new clothes”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.