I encountered this phrase twice yesterday: once on the radio (I can't remember the context; wasn't paying enough attention), and again in the NYT Book Review section, where Jay McInerney uses the expression as an aside: "Sorry, I tried, but I couldn't ignore the elephant in the room."

Yesterday was the first time I'd heard/read the expression. Is anyone out there familiar with it? What exactly does it mean?

Hold on to your hat, AnnaS:

On Google...

'elephants in the room' gets 270,000 hits

and:

'elephant in the room' gets [drum roll]:

1,070,000 !!!!

Don't know how the expression began. Will let somebody else untie that four-in-hand knot.

I don't know the origin, but to me it's a close cousin of "Emperor's New Clothes" territory ~ it describes an abundantly obvious fact that the room is declining to acknowledge. And def. singular elephant!

Reminds me of the string of school jokes about elephants, such as:
Q: How d'ya know there's an elephant in the fridge?
A Footprints in the butter!

Guy sitting in a railway carriage is tearing small bits of paper off a sheet and throwing them out the window. After a while, the person sitting opposite asked him why he was doing it.

"Keeps the elephants off the line," the fellow replied.

"But there are no elephants on the line!" cried his tormented fellow passenger.

"See? ... it works!" said the chap.

Ha! Is yours an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy? I think it must be, Cap'! Must save your tale for my kids!

It's definitely not a new expression. I've heard that expression several times ASp. Mav is correct in his definition. That is how it is used here.

"Elephant in the room" as I've heard it used is a particularly poignant metaphor.

Picture a roomful of visitors calling on someone who has recently lost a loved one to cruel illness, and everyone says "How are you?" but doesn't want the answer, and there's lots of small talk, all conspicuously avoiding the most obvious and important thing.

No one wants to mention it, but it's very clear, and everybody has to lean over awkwardly to avoid it; it's holding the conversation around an elephant in the middle of the room.