Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

Attics, basements, closets and storerooms across America are full of white elephants -- possessions too unwieldy, too unpopular, or just too ugly to give away. Because these items may be too valuable to sell, we store them or move them with us, decade after decade. But why do we call them elephants? And white ones at that?

The expression comes from a legend out of Siam, long before that country was named Thailand. The Siamese royalty had declared that all the rare albino elephants born in the kingdom were the sacred property of the King. Not one of these beasts could be ridden or killed without royal permission.

Occasionally, the King would bestow the gift of a white elephant upon one of his subjects or courtiers. Though the beast was sacred, the albino pachyderm was never received joyously, because its arrival meant the recipient had gravely displeased the King. Because the elephant could not be ridden, put to work, sold or given away, the courtier was forced to stable the creature until its natural death. The feeding and care of the white elephant spelled financial ruin for its unhappy recipient.

By the 17th century, the legend of the rare and ruinous albino became known in England, and by the 19th century, the expression white elephant was extended metaphorically to any object that's difficult or impossible to shed.

Radio Script > White Elephant