A white elephant!

[muna]

You’d better not be involved in a project which is "a white elephant"!

In ancient times, white elephants were regarded as holy animals in Thailand and other Asian countries. If an Asian monarch possessed a white elephant, it meant that he was ruling with justice and his kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity.

However, keeping a white elephant was a very expensive task, since the owner had to feed the animal with special food and provide access for people who wanted to worship it. That is why receiving a white elephant as a present from a monarch was at the same time a blessing and a curse: a blessing because the animal was sacred and a sign of the monarch's favour, and a curse because the animal had to be retained and could not be put to practical use in order to offset the cost of maintaining it.

For that reason, the expression a white elephant began to be used to refer to a burdensome possession, one which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost (particularly, its cost of upkeep) exceeds its usefulness or worth. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines the phrase as “something that is completely useless, although it may have cost a lot of money”, and gives an example:


“When the theatre first opened it was widely regarded as a white elephant.”


Depending on the context, there are several possible and correct ways to translate the figurative meaning of this expression into Spanish, for example: objeto superfluo, artículo no deseado, empresa fracasada, etc.

© Palabras del Plata

[- Osita -]

Interesante muna, gracias!