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Sep 16, 2010 This week's theme Fabled lands This week's words camelot hades never-never land ivory tower la-la land Read it today Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg ivory tower PRONUNCIATION: (EYE-vuh-ree TOU-uhr) MEANING: noun: A place or state of privileged seclusion, disconnected from practical matters and harsh realities of life. ETYMOLOGY: Translation of French tour d'ivoire, from tour (tower) + de (of) + ivoire (ivory). The term was first used in the figurative sense in 1837 by literary critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869). NOTES: The term is often applied to academia for its supposed preoccupation with lofty intellectual pursuits. While the term in its figurative sense is first attributed to the French critic Sainte-Beuve, it is found in the Song of Solomon 7:4 in a literal sense: "Your neck is like an ivory tower." USAGE: "In a democratic system, the true leaders have to remain constantly in touch with, and reach out to, the people and not remain like a king in an ivory tower." C L Manoj; The Agony of the Hereditary Turks; The Economic Times (New Delhi, India); Aug 9, 2010. Explore "ivory tower" in the Visual Thesaurus. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest. -Douglas William Jerrold, playwright and humorist (1803-1857)

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