WordWatch: Ivory tower

Today, we think of an ‘ivory tower’ as a place where you are separated from the flow of ordinary life. We are most likely to use ‘ivory tower’ when speaking of academics—on the rather quaint notion that they only need to understand the philosophy of the later Middle Ages, or the conjugation of irregular verbs in Urdu (or whatever), and that their specialist knowledge somehow puts them out of touch with the ‘real world’. ‘Ivory tower’ seems to have had this meaning since at least the early 20th century. But it’s not what the expression meant when it first appeared in English back in 1382 in the Wycliffe Bible’s translation of the Song of Solomon 7:4: “Thy neck is as an ivory tower…” The expression was retained by the KJV. You’ll still find it in your ESV today. The writer of the Song goes on to further compliment his beloved by telling her she has eyes like cisterns. Ah, those ancient romantics; they had a way with words, didn’t they! I’m not sure how my wife would take it if I told her she had a tall, thin neck and eyes like septic tanks. However, a more culturally (not to say romantically) sensitive paraphrase might be to tell her, “Your neck is like ivory, and your eyes sparkle like… pools…” (CEV). Two American lexicographers, Stanley Malless and Jeffrey McQuain, suggest that the modern meaning of ‘ivory tower’ may have arisen because of the widespread grow th of ivy over college and university buildings. If they’re right, the confusion between ‘ivy’ and ‘ivory’ strikes me as an odd one, but no other explanation has been offered. Since it was the Bible that put the expression ‘ivory tower’ into the English language, does its current meaning (i.e. remoteness from the rat-race) have anything to say to us Christians? Well, perhaps it does: perhaps there is a semi-ivory tower view of the world in which we see the rush and bustle of each day for what it is, and look at it all from a larger perspective—from the perspective of eternity, in fact. Meanwhile, when looking for a compliment to bestow upon your lovely wife, remember to paraphrase the Song of Solomon with great care.