olifant

English

Etymology

From Middle English olifaunt, from Old French oliphaunt, from Latin elephantus. See elephant.

Noun

olifant (plural olifants)

1. (obsolete) An elephant.
2. (historical) An ancient hunting horn, made of ivory.
   • 1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 35, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 479:

     And he sang them the staves of the Olifant, the magic horn,—how Roland would not sound it in his pride, and sounded it at Turpin’s bidding, but too late[.]

Translations

type of horn

• Catalan: olifant (ca)
• Finnish: olifantti
• French: olifant (fr) m
• Portuguese: olifante (pt) m
• Vietnamese: tù và (vi)

References

• oliphant (instrument) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “olifant”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• floatin'

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch olifant, from Middle Dutch olifant, from Old French olifant, from Latin elephantus, from Ancient Greek ἐλέφᾱς (eléphās).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʊə̯.liˌfant/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

olifant (plural olifante)

1. elephant

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch olifant, from Old French olifant, from Latin elephantus, from Ancient Greek ἐλέφᾱς (eléphās).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈoː.liˌfɑnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: oli‧fant

Noun

olifant m (plural olifanten, diminutive olifantje n)

1. elephant

Hypernyms

• olifantachtige
• slurfdier

Derived terms

• kamerolifant
• krijgsolifant
• olifantachtig
• olifantengeheugen
• olifantenpad
• zeeolifant

Descendants

• Afrikaans: olifant
• → Papiamentu: olefante, olifant

French

un olifant

Etymology

Inherited from Old French olifan (literally “elephant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.li.fɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

olifant m (plural olifants)

1. olifant (ivory horn)
   • 2019, Alain Damasio, chapter 5, in Les furtifs [The Stealthies], La Volte, →ISBN:

     Saskia ouvre les yeux et embouche son olifant pour sonner l’ouverture de la chasse à la manière médiévale.

     Saskia opens her eyes and raises her olifant to her lips to sound the start of the medieval hunt.

Further reading

• “olifant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• olifaunt, oliphant, olyphant

Etymology

Old French olifan

Noun

olifant (plural olifants)

1. elephant
2. ivory
3. elephant tusk
4. musical instrument made of elephant tusks
5. musical instrument resembling elephant tusks

Descendants

• English: oliphant, olifant, olyfaunte, olyphant, oliphaunt
• → Cornish: olifans

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

olifant m (definite singular olifanten, indefinite plural olifanter, definite plural olifantene)

1. oliphaunt

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

olifant m (definite singular olifanten, indefinite plural olifantar, definite plural olifantane)

1. oliphaunt

Old French

Noun

olifant oblique singular, m (oblique plural olifanz or olifantz, nominative singular olifanz or olifantz, nominative plural olifant)

1. Alternative form of olifan

Vilamovian

Alternative forms

• elefaont

Noun

olifant m (plural olifanta)

1. elephant