Ivory Tower

Question

What's the correct usage of the articles with "ivory tower"? A quick search of NYTimes.com gives hundreds of examples for both 'an' and 'the', however 'the' is more dominant. The problem is that I cant find any pattern in the found passages.

Cheers,
Al.

Paco2004 · Accepted Answer

I'll paste all what is written in the entry of ivory tower in Oxford English Dictionary. Looks like 'ivory tower' has been used as a common countable noun.

ivory tower
[tr. F. tour d'ivoire (see below).]
A condition of seclusion or separation from the world; in general, protection or shelter from the harsh realities of life. Also (with hyphen) attrib. Hence ivory-towered adj., ivory-toweredness; ivory-towerish adj., somewhat ivory-towered; ivory-towerism, -towerist.
(1837 Sainte-Beuve Pensées d'Août, à M. Villemain 152) Et Vigny, plus secret, Comme en sa tour d'ivoire, avant midi rentrait.] (1911 Brereton & Rothwell tr. Bergson's Laughter iii. 135) Each member [of society] must be ever attentive to his social surroundings..he must avoid shutting himself up in his own peculiar character as a philosopher in his ivory tower. (a1916 H. James Ivory Tower (1917) ii. iii. 142) Doesn't living in an ivory tower just mean the most distinguished retirement? (1922 H. Crane Let. 10 Dec. (1965) 108), I have grown accustomed to an ‘ivory tower’ sort of existence. (1936 E. Pound Let. Jan. (1971) 277) Ivory tower aesthetes. (1938 R. G. Collingwood Princ. Art vi. 120) The tendency was for each artist to construct an ivory tower of his own: to live, that is to say, in a world of his own devising. (1940 H. G. Wells New World Order § 9. 133) We want a Minister of Education who can electrify and rejuvenate old dons or put them away in ivory towers, and stimulate the younger ones. (1945 A. Huxley Let. 2 Apr. (1969) 518) Between ivory-towerism and art for art's sake on the one hand and direct political action on the other lies the alternative of spirtuality. (1947 J. Hayward Prose Lit. since 1939 46) If [literature] fails in this task it will be reduced to the status of an art pursued for art's sake by isolated groups of writers, segregated from the world in their ivory towers and ‘private worlds’. (1953 G. Vann Water & Fire iii. 50) That ivory-tower æstheticism which averts its gaze from the squalors of humanity. (1954 ‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom vii. 94) I'm going to plunge you into reality, my little Ivory-Towerist. (1959 20th Cent. Nov. 401 British governments have been badly informed and Britain's ivory-towered embassies may have to bear some of the blame. (1963 M. McCarthy Group vi. 120) We called you the Ivory Tower group. Aloof from the battle. (1963 Daily Tel. 12 Oct. 8/7 Pity the poor parson!) If he eschews all worldly contact, he's accused of being ivory-towerish and out of touch. (1963 Economist 26 Oct. 355/1) Every don..however attached to academic ivory-toweredness. (1967 P. Nokes Professional Task in Welfare Pract. vii. 113) When I began teaching at the Prison Staff College I soon became aware of a well established tradition that what was taught there was ‘ivory-towered’. (1968 J. J. C. Smart Between Sci. & Philos. 17) It would be unwise to think that philosophy is exclusively a subject for inhabitants of ivory towers. (1972 Science 19 May 769/3) New realities which make it impossible for them to think and perform in such ivory-tower isolation.

paco

How2die · Answer

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Ivory Tower

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