Or is it an ivory tower? I’ve looked this phrase up in a couple of dictionaries, and I still don’t get it. If anybody can help me understand its connotations, I would be very appreciative. Basically, I want to be familiar enough with it to use it in witty insults.
Here’s the denotation:[
I also found that it comes from the French tour d’ivoire. Does it mean exactly the same thing in French?
I feel like I’m missing something, though. The term seems to be used usually, but not always, in reference to academicians. Or oblivous people who don’t “get it.” Are people who daydream a lot and never do their work “in the ivory tower”? I also get a sense of idealism (which I can understand) and elitism (which I can’t). Is that right?
And aside from the definition, what about the phrase itself. Was there a university once that had a tower that looked like ivory? Or maybe it’s a play on “Ivy League”? (Though this seems unlikely if it’s directly from the French.)
So, in short, any and all insights into this strange phrase would be most appreciated. Thanks.
I have always heard it used to describe people who make policy changes that affect others.
ie if a company director instituted a rule that everyone had to work weekends, they may all complain that it’s ok for him in his ivory tower, but they are the ones that get screwed.
Ivory is an expensive commodity, building a tower of it would be something reserved for royalty, furthermore, occupation of a tower implies separation from individuals standing on the ground.
The phrase is a way of implying that the person (‘in the tower’) is distant, aloof and unaffected by the consequences of their decisions.
For homework, read Dr Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle - the tower is made of turtles, not ivory, but the concept is there.
You have the right idea. It refers to someone who is detached from realities and deals with theory and and idealized concept of things. Usually to the detriment of the people affected.
However, I don’t know how this got to be a cliché. I suppose that there is some old fable around somewhere about a king who lives in an ivory tower who rules his kingdom from there without really knowing what goes on. I doubt it is based on any real ivory tower. That would have been a lot of ivory.
Michael Quinion has an entry on his World Wide Words site on ivory tower. He traces the origin back to French poet Charles-Augustin Saint-Beuve, so it does come directly from the French. Quinion’s summation about the phrase:
Quinion also links the phrase back to the Bible and the Song of Solomon, but I’m not sure that linkage makes sense.
It’s actually a tower of soap. The upside is that it’s 99 and 44/100ths percent pure. the downside is that after a few good rainstorms you have to rebuild it.
RR
Okay, thanks for the responses. That World Wide Words article is interesting. I’m still having trouble resolving the opulence of a tower of ivory with the absent-mindedness that “ivory tower” implies. They don’t seem exclusive of each other, just unrelated. But actually, Yertle the Turtle isn’t absent-minded, just uncaring.
I guess I’m getting a better understanding, but this is maybe the sort of thing that comes with time.
I’ve most often heard it used as a reference in academia to professors who have spent their entire lives in the educational system and don’t have a clue what’s happening in the real world.
I think it’s a reference to ancient kings who ruled from their “ivory towers” without knowing what life was like for the common man.
Fat Bald Guy
I too have heard it referenced by people speaking of the academic world and needless to say, very disparagingly. This was especially true in the 1960’s when people in the academic arena were speaking out against the Vietnam War. Whereas the conservatives were defending it “tooth and nail” (can you say John Wayne?) while all the while trying like Hell to get their kids into the National Guard or a cushy draft deferment.
Does that help you Achenar? (I went a little off topic there.)
