IdiomDaily Life
English
Englishivory tower
Meaning: An isolated environment where one is out of touch with everyday reality; a place of retreat where one concentrates on intellectual rather than everyday matters.
Example: “Critics say the committee decides policy from an ivory tower.”
Equivalents in other languages
French: Une tour d'ivoire Literally: An ivory tower
Origin: The Song of Songs in the Bible compares a woman's neck to "a tower of ivory," a symbol of purity. In 1837 the French critic Sainte-Beuve used tour d'ivoire for the poet Alfred de Vigny's withdrawal from the world, and the phrase came to mean detachment from practical life, especially in universities.
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