elephantine
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Elephantine \El`e*phan"tine\, a. [L. elephantinus of ivory, Gr.
?: cf. F. ['e]l['e]phantin.]
Pertaining to the elephant, or resembling an elephant
(commonly, in size); hence, huge; immense; heavy; as, of
elephantine proportions; an elephantine step or tread.
[1913 Webster]
{Elephantine epoch} (Geol.), the epoch distinguished by the
existence of large pachyderms. --Mantell.
{Elephantine tortoise} (Zo["o]l.), a huge land tortoise;
esp., {Testudo elephantina}, from islands in the Indian
Ocean; and {T. elephantopus}, from the Galapagos Islands.
Elephantoid
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
elephantine
adj.
Used of programs or systems that are both conspicuous {hog}s (owing
perhaps to poor design founded on {brute force and ignorance}) and
exceedingly {hairy} in source form. An elephantine program may be
functional and even friendly, but (as in the old joke about being in
bed with an elephant) it's tough to have around all the same (and,
like a pachyderm, difficult to maintain). In extreme cases, hackers
have been known to make trumpeting sounds or perform expressive
proboscatory mime at the mention of the offending program. Usage:
semi-humorous. Compare `has the elephant nature' and the somewhat more
pejorative {monstrosity}. See also {second-system effect} and
{baroque}.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
elephantine
Used of programs or systems that are both conspicuous {hogs}
(owing perhaps to poor design founded on {brute force and
ignorance}) and exceedingly {hairy} in source form. An
elephantine program may be functional and even friendly, but
(as in the old joke about being in bed with an elephant) it's
tough to have around all the same (and, like a pachyderm,
difficult to maintain). In extreme cases, hackers have been
known to make trumpeting sounds or perform expressive
proboscatory mime at the mention of the offending program.
Usage: semi-humorous. Compare "has the elephant nature" and
the somewhat more pejorative monstrosity. See also
{second-system effect} and {baroque}.
[{Jargon File}]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
118 Moby Thesaurus words for "elephantine":
Atlantean, Brobdingnagian, Cyclopean, Gargantuan, Herculean,
Homeric, Latinate, abysmal, arid, astronomic, awkward, barren,
blah, blank, bloodless, bombastic, bulky, characterless, clumsy,
cold, colorless, colossal, cramped, cumbersome, cumbrous, dead,
dismal, draggy, drearisome, dreary, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty,
effete, elephantlike, empty, enormous, epic, etiolated, fade, flat,
forced, formal, gargantuan, giant, giantlike, gigantic, graceless,
guinde, halting, heavy, heavy-handed, heroic, ho-hum, hollow, huge,
hulking, hulky, immense, inane, inexcitable, infinite, inkhorn,
insipid, jejune, jumbo, labored, leaden, lifeless, low-spirited,
lubberly, lumbering, lumpish, lumpy, maladroit, mammoth, massive,
massy, mighty, monster, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, pale,
pallid, pedestrian, plodding, pointless, poky, pompous, ponderous,
prodigious, profound, sesquipedalian, slow, solemn, spiritless,
sterile, stiff, stilted, stodgy, stuffy, stupendous, superficial,
tasteless, tedious, titanic, towering, tremendous, turgid,
ungraceful, uninspired, unlively, unwieldy, vapid, vast, wooden
[email protected]