Definition: Useless possessions, which are not always easy to get rid of.
Origin
Well, it seems I couldn’t fool many people with this one. Most pig players correctly wrote in to say that this phrase originated in Siam centuries ago where the albino elephant was not only rare, but also sacred. Any pale pachyderms that were captured were immediately handed over to the emperor — lucky man! Being sacred the elephant was pampered and nurtured and never asked to perform a stitch of work. And no matter how tempting, a dead white elephant on the palace floor was a big no no. The emperor soon found out that Dumbo was a very expensive houseguest. But the emperor occasionally had his revenge. If someone in his court displeased him, a white elephant would mysteriously appear on the poor bloke’s castle doorstep — a gift he couldn’t refuse. This sounds a whole lot worse than Aunt Ethel’s ugly lamp that now sits in your living room. Congratulations to prussel1 for being the first pig player to come up with the answer.
