White elephant is an expression used to classify something valuable or costing a lot of money, What a has no use or practical importance.
Popularly, the expression white elephant is also used to symbolize big, bulky gifts. and strangers who are of no use to the individual, but who cannot be dismissed.
In the political and business sphere, white elephant is the name given to the work or project that is created or built and that has almost no use for society. Usually, these investments are quite expensive and useless.
In large Brazilian urban centers, for example, there are several "white elephants", such as football stadiums built for the World Cup de 2014, viaducts and roads that do not help the flow of traffic, hospitals and other public buildings that were built and abandoned by the government.
Biologically, the white elephant is a species of albino elephant, which exists in Asia and has great symbolic value among Thai people.
legend of the white elephant
The origin of the use of the expression "white elephant" came from a typical custom in the kingdom of Siam (present-day Thailand).
According to legend, in the kingdom of Siam the white elephant was a very rare animal and considered sacred. When a white elephant was found, it was to be delivered immediately to the king.
When a subject did not please the king, the king "presented" him with a white elephant which, being considered a sacred animal, should not be refused or passed on to someone else.
The new owner of the white elephant had the obligation to take good care of the animal, feeding it, cleaning it and ornamenting it, having for this many expenses and no gain, because the white elephants could not work or be sold.
Europeans, when observing this practice, started to use the expression "white elephant" to connote things that were valuable, but that were useless.
See also the meanings of Elephant and of the White color.
