Eggcorn Forum

Discussions about eggcorns and related topics

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to if you wish to register.

The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.

Thanks for your understanding.

Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2008-12-08 10:54:04

Oikolukija
Member
From: London
Registered: 2008-01-16
Posts: 5

ivy tower

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

Offline

 

#2 2008-12-08 15:25:26

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: ivy tower

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

Offline

 

#3 2021-05-30 12:16:20

Eoin
Member
Registered: 2006-04-11
Posts: 37

Re: ivy tower

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).

This looks like a clear case of selection bias. It’s hard to do good as a hacker if you isolate yourself in an ivy tower of ycombinator hackers and …

Policymakers would say IR scholars aren’t realistic, and just sit in an ivy tower and propose ideas.

Marshall Shelley may be a vice president of Christianity Today International, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he serves in an ivy tower.

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)

Offline

 

#4 2021-05-31 20:22:27

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: ivy tower

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* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
PunBB is © 2002–2005 Rickard Andersson
Individual posters retain the copyright to their posts.

RSS feeds: active topicsall new posts