Meaning
A proverbial comment on someone with an exceptionally long and retentive memory, especially for past favours, slights, and grievances. It can praise a genuinely powerful memory, but more often serves as a wry warning that nothing done to such a person is ever forgotten. Informal, familiar register; usually humorous or pointed rather than neutral. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The saying rests on the observed retentiveness of elephants: working animals learn many commands and recognize handlers across lives of fifty or sixty years. Proverb references call it probably of Greek origin - the ancient Greeks said 'the camel never forgets an injury' - and the Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings (1996) records the fixed English proverb as first attested in the United States in W. Martyn's novel Blue Ridge, without giving a date. The elephant clearly displaces the camel by 1904, when Saki's story 'Reginald on Besetting Sins' has 'Women and elephants never forget an injury'. It became a stock 20th-century proverb, reinforced by popular writing on elephant behaviour.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a memory like an elephant
- elephants never forget
- the elephant remembers
Usage Examples
- Aunt Rosa never forgets a slight - truly, an elephant never forgets - and she still retells the story of the forgotten birthday from 1998.
- The archivist has a memory like an elephant: name any folder number and she recalls its contents.
- Elephants never forget, and neither does our supplier, so treat them well now and they will honour us for years.