Elephantine, an island and town situated at the First Cataract, was the southern boundary of ancient Egypt until the Middle Kingdom. It formed a natural boundary between Egypt and Nubia. It was also the site of many noblemen's rock-cut tombs.

Elephantine (Arabic: الفنتين) is an island in the River Nile, located just downstream of the First Cataract at . It measures some 1.2 km from north to south, and is about 400 m across at its widest. It is a part of the modern Egyptian city of Aswan.

Used of programs or systems that are both conspicuous hogs (owing perhaps to poor design founded on brute force and ignorance) and exceedingly hairy in source form. An elephantine program may be functional and even friendly, but (as in the old joke about being in bed with an elephant) it's tough to have around all the same (and, like a pachyderm, difficult to maintain). In extreme cases, hackers have been known to make trumpeting sounds or perform expressive proboscatory mime at the mention of the offending program. Usage: semi-humorous. Compare `has the elephant nature' and the somewhat more pejorative monstrosity. See also second-system effect and baroque.

Pertaining to the elephant, or resembling an elephant (commonly, in size); hence, huge; immense; heavy; as, of elephantine proportions; an elephantine step or tread.

of great mass; huge and bulky; "a jumbo jet"; "jumbo shrimp"