the.com/ivory tower
where brilliant people go to think deeply and forget how rent works.
means a metaphor for academia or intellectual life detached from the practical, messy realities of the everyday world.
from from the biblical song of solomon, where it describes a lover's neck; french poet sainte-beuve repurposed it in 1837 to mock poet alfred de vigny's retreat from worldly affairs into pure art, and the phrase migrated into english as a jab at cloistered academics.
biblical rootsong of solomon 7:4, praising a neck
first academic jabsainte-beuve, 1837, aimed at a poet
modern shorthandnow means any elite, out-of-touch expertise
for instance
oxbridge dreaming spires — 800 years of tutorials, moats of tradition and tweed
academic tenure debates — critics say lifetime job security breeds detachment from real stakes