What it really means
To be bang up to the elephant was to be perfect. Not good — complete, unapproachable, as J. Redding Ware put it in 1909.
The phrase is built out of two pieces. Bang up was already London slang for first-class; Ware has it as its own entry, and guesses that the bang comes from the commanding report of a gun. The elephant is the interesting part.
Ware tells it like this. The Elephant and Castle tavern in South London had for years been the centre of South London tavern life. Then, in 1882, London fell in love with a different elephant: Jumbo, the enormous African elephant at the Zoological Gardens. When Jumbo was sold to the American showman P. T. Barnum that year, the papers were full of him, and the public liked to believe he was refusing to leave. He left anyway. In Ware's words, he went with no emotion, and left behind him this bit of passing English.
So the elephant at the top of the scale was both the famous pub and the most talked-about animal in London that year — about as big as a comparison could get.
Ware's example shows how it was used, and it is not entirely a compliment. A fool, it says, thinks himself so blooming sharp, so right bang up to the elephant, that he's got an idea that no sharper would ever try to take him on. Being bang up to the elephant was the target. Believing you were was the trap.
The same book has a darker cousin, bang through the elephant: a finished course of dissipation — elephant there being short for elephant's trunk, rhyming slang for drunk.
Where it comes from
first-class, superior (Ware: 'Low London')
the Elephant and Castle tavern, and Jumbo — by Ware's account
Ware's explanation joins two London elephants: the Elephant and Castle, long the centre of South London tavern life, and Jumbo, the London Zoo elephant whose sale to America in 1882 caused a national outcry.
- 1882
The date Ware gives the phrase. That year Jumbo, London Zoo's giant African elephant, was sold to P. T. Barnum and shipped to the United States amid public protest.
- 1909
Ware's Passing English of the Victorian Era: 'Bang up to the Elephant (London, 1882). Perfect, complete, unapproachable.'
In real life
- She'd ironed the tablecloth, lit the candles and made her own pastry: the whole dinner was bang up to the elephant.
- He thinks his parallel parking is bang up to the elephant, and the dent in the bumper disagrees.
- Three goals, a clean sheet and a sunny afternoon — the match was bang up to the elephant from start to finish.
Questions
Q01What does bang up to the elephant mean?
Perfect, complete, unapproachable. That is J. Redding Ware's definition in Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909), where he labels it London slang of 1882.
Q02Where does bang up to the elephant come from?
Ware links it to the Elephant and Castle, the South London tavern district, and to Jumbo, the London Zoo elephant who became a national obsession when he was sold to America in 1882. 'Bang up' already meant first-class.
Q03Is it a real Victorian phrase?
It is in Ware's 1909 dictionary of Victorian slang, with an example sentence. We have not found it in an earlier source, so Ware is the record.
Sources
- J. Redding Ware, Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909), full text — 'Bang up to the Elephant', 'Bang Up' and 'Bang through the Elephant'.
- Wikipedia — Jumbo (sold to P. T. Barnum and taken to the United States in March 1882).
- Mental Floss — Victorian slang list (includes bang up to the elephant).