- white elephant
[white elephant 词源字典]
- white elephant: see elephant
[white elephant etymology, white elephant origin, 英语词源] - white elephant (n.)
- "burdensome charge, inconvenient thing that one does not know how to get rid of," 1851, supposedly from the practice of the King of Siam of presenting one of the sacred albino elephants to a courtier who had fallen from favor; the gift was a great honor, but the proper upkeep of one was ruinously expensive.