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As early as 1590, the English used the idiom to "see the lions," which is a likely ancestor to seeing the elephant. This referred to the Tower of London , thought to have been one of the world's oldest zoos .
Jan 14, 2018 · U.S.—‘to see the elephant’: to see life, the world or the sights, as of a large city, to gain knowledge by experience. But in 1842, the original meaning of ‘to see the elephant’ was ‘to get sick and tired of something’.
Experience more than one wants to, learn a hard lesson; also, see combat, especially for the first time. For example, After the expedition lost two climbers in an avalanche, they had seen the elephant and turned back , or On his first tour of duty he saw the elephant .
Sep 16, 2020 · To see the elephant or to see the lions mean to have experience in life, to be worldly and world weary, to have seen so much that nothing surprises. To see the lions is the older phrase and originated in Britain, where it has remained.
Idiom: See the elephant Meaning: If you see the elephant, you experience much more than you wish to; it is often used when a soldier goes into a warzone for the first time.
This term, which dates from the first half of the 1800s, uses “elephant” in the sense of a remarkable or surprising sight, practice, or the like. In the military, the phrase was used during the Mexican War of the 1840s to indicate having seen combat for the first time.
Jul 10, 2022 · Certainly no equivalent of the phrase see the elephant occurs in Montaigne’s sixteenth-century French, any more than such an expression can be found in the second-century Greek of Arrian.
