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pachyderm

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French pachyderme, equivalent to pachy- (“thick”) +‎ -derm (“skin”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pachyderm (plural pachyderms)

Elephants are pachyderms
  1. (obsolete, zoology) A member of the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata, grouping of thick-skinned, hoofed animals such as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant and tapir.
  2. (informal) An elephant.
    • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 132:
      And so it happened that before the elephant realized that his new enemy had leaped from his path Tarzan had driven his iron-shod spear from behind the massive shoulder straight into the fierce heart, and the colossal pachyderm had toppled to his death at the feet of the ape-man.
    • 2005, The Decemberists, “The Infanta”, in Picaresque:
      Among five score pachyderm / Each canopied and passengered / Sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls
    • 2025 June 27, Michael M. Grynbaum, “The Concorde-and-Caviar Era of Condé Nast, When Magazines Ruled the Earth”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 June 2025:
      In September 2008 […] Portfolio rented an elephant to illustrate an article about JPMorgan Chase’s credit derivatives desk, because the editors had decided on the headline “The $58 Trillion Elephant in the Room.” Condé spent about $30,000 photographing the pachyderm, instead of using a stock image.
  3. (figurative) A person with thick skin; someone who is not affected by or does not care what others say about them.
  4. (figurative) Someone who is insensitive.

Derived terms

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Translations

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