"elephant" in seven languages
Meaningelephant
Spanish
elefante
/eleˈfante/
masc.learned
French
éléphant
/elefɑ̃/
masc.learned
Italian
elefante
/eleˈfante/
masc.learned
Portuguese
elefante
/eleˈfɐ̃tʃi/
masc.learned
Romanian
elefant
/eleˈfant/
masc.learned
Catalan
elefant
/ələˈfan/
masc.learned
English
elephant
/ˈɛləfənt/
from Latin/French · Old French olifant, respelled after Latin
English → ItalianelephantelefanteCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
ELEPHANTUM‘elephant; ivory (from Greek eléphas)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Exotic animals came through books, so the shapes are learned. A worn-down medieval French form survives as olifant, Roland's ivory horn.
English relatives: elephant, elephantine