Mammoth– as an adjective mammoth means large in size to an extreme extent, and as a noun it names a large, hairy elephant-like creature which is now extinct.
History.com describes the word’s popular usage-
“Early Americans’ use of the descriptive term mammoth arose from the discovery of a giant woolly mammoth skeleton in New York in 1801. [President Thomas] Jefferson, fascinated with the natural sciences, was a member of the American Philosophical Society and helped the organization raise funds to complete the archaeological project.”
Around this same time Jefferson received from supporters a block of cheese weighing 1,235 pounds, which Jefferson biographer Dumas Malone describes as being made “reputedly from the milk of 900 cows at one milking.”
Jefferson’s opponents mocked the cheese as “mammoth.”
History.com continues, “To the Federalists’ surprise and disappointment, the general populace embraced the term with nationalistic zeal. Almost immediately, butcher shops and markets advertised mammoth-size products from sides of veal to pumpkins and loaves of bread.”
The President sent the makers a nice thank you. Malone writes, “In his reply Jefferson, besides reiterating his devotion to republican principles, including the prohibition of religious tests, referred to the cheese as an extraordinary proof of skill in the domestic arts and expressed special gratitude for this mark of esteem from freeborn farmers.”
We still see mammoth in retail products and sales today.