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Chris -- 2018-04-11
This actually makes more sense than standard “ivory tower”: why ivory? But ivy no doubt adorned Rapunzel’s tower, and there’s the Ivy league.
Google for “an ivy tower” (just “ivy tower” is flooded with irrelevant uses) to see examples. It’s been discussed in passing in alt.usage.english in 2005, as it happens:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive … 00066.html
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Nice—we seem to have caught every other ivory/ivy substitution, but somehow this one wasn’t recorded. A lot more discussion of this complex of reshapings here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=1013
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There is a easy conflation between “living in halls of ivy” (living in the atmosphere of intellectual activity) and “living in an ivory tower” (living away from the rest to follow mental and esoteric pursuits).
Policymakers would say IR scholars aren’t realistic, and just sit in an ivy tower and propose ideas.
I was attracted to this thread when someone pointed out that building an ivory tower would be not only impractical, but illegal, and mused on a suitable substitute. I thought of an ivy tower, although it would have to have some manner of metal frame for anyone to live there.
Last edited by Eoin (2021-05-30 12:37:28)
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The notion of an Ivy-League education encouraging you to tower over the (often proudly) ignorant masses fits in there pretty well.
A movement where it unites people who are the Ivy League tower academics, the entrepreneurs who dropped out of college to start companies
What IS racist is Alan Dershowitz telling Otis McDonald that he knows what is better for him while living in an Ivy League Tower.
I have gone through significant struggles. My knowledge, wisdom, and insight come from the school of hard knocks, not some Ivy-league tower. I will help guide​ ...
The idea of everyone paying taxes looks wonderful sitting in an Ivy League tower, but on the ground, business is slowing and affecting corporate earnings.
No, I have neither a crystal ball nor an MBA from some Ivy League tower of learning. What I do have is more than 60 years writing about the …
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2021-05-31 20:23:01)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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