The elephant in the room

What does the « Elephant in the room » idiom mean?

It’s an awful feeling, especially for the elephant. Unfortunately, this situation occurs often in the workplace and highlights an awkward situation which everyone is aware of. Imagine an elephant, something pretty big, entering a room, who ignores everyone is actually pointing at it but no one is saying anything.

This common idiom refers to an obvious problem, difficult situation or truth that is being deliberately ignored by everyone, even if everyone knows they can’t carry on like this.

If people choose to remain silent in such a situation, it’s usually because they worry of offending someone, creating a conflict, looking bad or putting themselves in a compromising situation. It’s most likely denial (or cowardice in some cases). It can be quite isolating for the involved people if the related conflict is not resolved.

Why do we use this colloquialism? Where does it come from?

According to some sources, the expression may have originated in 1814 when poet and fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov wrote a fable called « The Inquisitive Man », telling the story of a man who goes to a museum and notices all sorts of things, but fails to notice an elephant.

From there, the phrase became a proverb, and the Oxford English Dictionary recorded the first use of the phrase in The New York Times in 1959:

« Financing schools has become a problem about equal to having an elephant in the living room. It’s so big you just can’t ignore it. »

Translation in French: « Sujet tabou » (Taboo topic), « Non-dit » (Untold)