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Ivory tower
Definitions
- 1 Separated from reality and practical matters; overly academic.
"The majority of librarians appear to have shown a very ivory tower approach to the application of all types of management technique to librarianship."
- 1 A sheltered, overly-academic existence or perspective, implying a disconnection or lack of awareness of reality or practical considerations. idiomatic
"Such a proposal looks fine from an ivory tower, but it could never work in real life."
- 2 a state of mind that is discussed as if it were a place wordnet
Etymology
Calque of French tour d'ivoire, based on a biblical phrase, coined by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve to compare the poet Alfred de Vigny (more isolated) with Victor Hugo (more socially engaged). First attested in English in a translation of Laughter by French philosopher Henri Bergson (1911). The term was popularized in The Ivory Tower (1917) by Henry James, though used in different sense (millionaires, not professors).
Calque of French tour d'ivoire, based on a biblical phrase, coined by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve to compare the poet Alfred de Vigny (more isolated) with Victor Hugo (more socially engaged). First attested in English in a translation of Laughter by French philosopher Henri Bergson (1911). The term was popularized in The Ivory Tower (1917) by Henry James, though used in different sense (millionaires, not professors).
See also for "ivory tower"
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