Samwise Gamyi expresses his desire to see one and recites a hobbit folk poem describing it as 'big as a house.' Later, in Chapter 4, the creature is first called 'mГ»mak' by Damrod, one of Ithilien's Rangers under Faramir's command. The oliphant is described in The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter 3. It should be noted that in both Dutch and Afrikaans, olifant means elephant. The word survives in the form of the surname 'Oliphant' found in the English-speaking world. But the form of the Gothic words suggests that these are also borrowings, perhaps directly or indirectly from the Greek elephas (ОµО»ОµП†О±П‚), literally 'ivory', though apparently with some confusion regarding the animal to which the word referred.

the Gothic ulbandus, which also means 'camel'. The French word is in turn a tributary of the Old High German olbenta ('camel'), and of the Latin elephantus ('elephant'), a word of Greek origin. The word appears in Middle English as olifant and olifaunt, and derives from medieval French olifanz. In the original English, Tolkien uses the word oliphaunt, a variation of the archaic word oliphant that refers to both the horn already mentioned and the elephant's tusk and the elephant itself. In The Lord of the Rings there are echoes of this oliphant in the Horn of Vorondil carried by Boromir, the horn of Hornbill and the horns of Los Gamos. The most famous use of the oliphant is in the Song of RoldГЎn : 'RoldГЎn brings the olifant to his lips.' RoldГЎn does not request help in the Battle of Roncesvalles in 778 until it is too late for him and his companions. The word ' olifante ' exists in Spanish and refers to a horn of ivory that medieval knights honked as a warning signal. However, this comment was not kept in the final published version of the Appendices so it cannot be considered definitive. An early version of Appendix F indicates that from 'the language of the Eastern Men and allies of Sauron all that is preserved is mГєmak, a name for the great elephants of Harad.' Given the connection of these creatures with the land of Harad, it seems likely that those allies in question are the haradrim, although there are also those who take the quote literally and suggest that the word would be of oriental origin ( variags of Khand ). The only mention of the origin of this name is found in the volume The Peoples of Middle Earth, in the part dedicated to the preparation of the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The hobbits, who had not seen for generations but retained their memories in their folklore, known as olifants. The origin of the word is not clear although it seems to come from the native language of the Haradrim. The name mГ»mak (singular of mГ»makil ) is the one commonly used by the men of Gondor to refer to these beasts.

Lord of the rings oliphants