pachydermic

English

Etymology

pachy- +‎ derm +‎ -ic or pachyderm +‎ -ic

Adjective

pachydermic (comparative more pachydermic, superlative most pachydermic)

1. (medicine) Characterized by or characteristic of pachydermy.
   • 1895, The International Medical Annual and Practitioner's Index:

     Pachydermic changes may take place either in the interarytenoid commissure or in the mucous membrane covering the true vocal cords, or it may exist in a generally diffuse form within the larynx.

   • 1898, William Wotherspoon Ireland, The Mental Affections of Children, page 242:

     In pachydermic idiocy the symptoms are more decided and the appearance more distinctive. In the cretin the hands are of a more normal shape, whereas in the pachydermic idiot the fingers are lumpy and the hands swollen.

   • 2014, Walter R. Frontera, Julie K. Silver, Thomas D. Rizzo, Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, page 495:

     In some cases, these changes can spread beyond the injury site to the entire limb, and in the worst case, in addition to excruciating pain and hyperesthesia, the skin becomes pachydermic.

2. Pertaining to the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata.
   • 1862, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Summarized Proceedings and a Directory of Members:

     The position of the Walrus is between Sirenidia and Pachydermata ; they belong to the pachydermic order by structural evidences, and bear only analogies to the seals.

   • 1990, Neil Rolde, Maine: A Narrative History, page 9:

     ... "great beasts that resembled huge brown haystacks" and had long, long teeth — tusks, no doubt — so it seems incontrovertible that mastodons and woolly mammoths are meant. Such pachydermic animals did roam Maine once upon a time.

   • 2015, Daniel S. Putler, Robert E. Krider, Customer and Business Analytics:

     This is rather like dividing the zoological universe into pachydermic and non-pachydermic animals.

3. Pertaining to or involving elephants.
   • 1906, Great Round World - Volume 27, page 237:

     "This," says the press agent, "was a test, of pachydermic memory which corroboratcs all that tradition and history assumes."

   • 1985, Raymond Queneau, The Blue Flowers:

     With a powerful foot it drives the culverin into the ground and continues hot-trunk on its way in the pachydermic hope of reducing to mincemeat the vermin it perceives, but the dogs are already in their kennels, the horses in the stables and the arttillarymen hard by the drawbridge.

   • 2014, David M. Jordan, The A's: A Baseball History, page 12:

     When the A's many years later put out a newsletter, they called it “Along the Elephant Trail,” with appropriate pachydermic iconography.

4. Massive; elephantine.
   • 1994, Press Summary - Illinois Information Service, page 2:

     Maybe that's why a state legislative committee, asked to recommend changes to Illinois' politically sleazy purchasing system. has called for a new bureaucracy of pachydermic proportions.

   • 2007, Helmuth Rolfes, Angela Ann Zukowski, Communicatio Socialis:

     In any case, in a context characterised by an already overstretched study and teaching environment why deal with a subject as vague as communication – with its multi-faceted meanings that range from the infinitismal to the pachydermic and that is a challenge to most people let alone the proverbially blind.

   • 2011, Jimmy Casas Klausen, James R. Martel, How Not to be Governed:

     The raw and naked thought of Stirner is a barbaric act of rare ferocity, excessive, the classical elephant that with its pachydermic mass makes space for itself in the philosophical china shop,” writes Alfredo Bonnano.

5. Ponderous; slow and deliberate.
   • 1936, Daniel W. Josselyn, Why be Tired?, page 33:

     Have you ever noticed that you can practically see men thinking at a business conference, pachydermic with seriousness?

   • 1991, Armin Rosencranz, Shyam Divan, Martha L. Noble, Environmental law and policy in India, page 99:

     Otherwise a profligate statutory body or pachydermic governmental agency may legally defy duties under the law by urging in self-defence a self-created bankruptcy or perverted expenditure budget.

   • 2005, T. Lajapathi Roy, Atrocities Against Dalits and Relevance of Land Reforms, page 42:

     The Court, it its interpretative role, can neither be pachydermic nor hyperactive when landlords, here and there lament about lost land.

6. Thick-skinned; insensitive.
   • 1913, Life - Volume 61, page 156:

     On the contrary, we are studiously pachydermic and nobody ever accused us of being sensitive to public opinion, but really this thing is commencing to afiect even our nerves.

   • 1920, Lida Clara Schem, The Hyphen - Volume 1, page 390:

     Such pachydermic obtuseness surely could be found in isolated instances only, and happy chance had thrown that isolated instance his way.

   • 1924, Lillian Beatrice Lawler, Latin Notes - Volumes 1-13:

     I remarked, “You needn't look at me that way, Mary. It makes no impression. I am pachydermic after all these years of teaching.”