What does the saying Elephant in the Room mean?
to have an “Elephant in the room” means that there is a large situation in the room/house that needs to be addressed, but noone is addressing it, so everyone just walks around the situation, trying to live with it, when, in the long run it would be better to discuss and deal with the problem so it can be resoved. A perfect example would be alcoholism or drug abuse. These are situations that must be dealt with, but is mainly ignored and the family cannot move around the disease, just as they could not move around an elephant.
It’s is a phrase for an obvious truth that is being ignored. It is based on the fact that an elephant in a small room would be impossible to overlook. It sometimes is used to refer to a question or problem that very obviously stands to reason, but which is ignored for the convenience of one or more involved parties. The phrase also implies a value judgement that the issue should be discussed openly. It’s commonly used in addiction recovery terminology to describe the reluctance of friends and family of an addicted person to discuss the person’s problem, thus aiding the person’s denial. The term is often used to describe a political hot potato that involves a social taboo, such as racism, which everyone understands to be an issue but which no one is willing to admit.
