Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An obsolete form of
elephant . - noun A hunter's or warrior's horn made of ivory: used in the middle ages, more frequently as a decorative piece of furniture than as a musical instrument.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
elephant .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The elephant, by some called oliphant, is the largest of all four-footed beasts.
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07 Robert Kerr 1784
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May 11th, 2006 at 11: 00 am katy says: hey all! don’t forget – richard perle will be on al franken – AirAmericaRadio – today 2pm hour … the whole show sounds great – i love it when tom oliphant is on (1pm) …
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The oliphant was a glorified bugle-horn made of rich material, such as ivory, carved and inlaid with designs in gold and silver.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various
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Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003), its scene was the Oliphant clash, every oliphant in the fight was a combination of practical (oliphant or people around CG oliphant) and CG.
Sunday Discussion: Practical Effects vs CGI - Is One Better Than The Other? « FirstShowing.net 2008
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NEONBEAR my dad was an extra in this, high fived timothy oliphant after a take. i thought it was gonna be a run of the mill horror film but this trailer actually looks kinda good. i'm seeing it either way cause i wanna see if i can spot my dad, but it's nice to know i might have seen it even if he wasn't a part of it.
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Marie – did you get to hear tom oliphant today? another mood lifter!
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And now this is the last word: here is a horn of oliphant which thou shalt wear about thy neck, Birdalone; and if thou be sore bestead, or thy heart faileth thee, blow in it, yet not before the onfall; and then, whether thou blow much or little, thou shalt be well holpen.
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Then she stayed her feet, and set the horn to her lips and blew; and the oliphant gave forth a long singing note which was strange to hear.
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The general commended his soul to Ishtar and sounded the golden oliphant.
Wings in the Night Howard, Robert E. 2006
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By then he could have done nothing to stop them, but he might have managed to blow another signal on his oliphant-horn to let the French on the other side of the pass know how close they were.
she commented on the word oliphant
Originally, in Middle English, Old French, Breton, Welsh, Cornish: elephant. The refashioning of oliphant after Lat. elephantum seems to have taken place earlier in England than in France, the French forms with el- being cited only from the 15th century.
August 6, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word oliphant
Is oliphaunt a variant spelling, or just weirdness?
August 6, 2008
vanishedone commented on the word oliphant
Culture24: 'Culture Minister Barbara Follett has placed a temporary export bar on a medieval carved ivory oliphant or hunting horn valued at £3.35million.'
June 6, 2009