Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarwood
Confirmation? Sorry, but not everyone goes to equestrian school. Try leaving your ivory tower sometime.
|
I have not gone to equestrian school, I don't live in an ivory tower, and I don't play a doctor on TV...
Over time, people tend to accumulate useless information, or information that is no longer relevant, like the putting a horse away wet. As a trivia buff, I find word origins and the origin of phrases to be fascinating. Many of these phrases are still used today, and while the original meanings/implications are no longer relevant, the spirit of their meaning continues.
Speaking of phrases, living in an Ivory Tower has its roots in the Bible:
Quote:
|
Song of Solomon 7:4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
|
Here, the phrase implies purity.
Also:
Quote:
|
The contemporary figurative meaning is of a place of unworldly isolation. This may be in allusion to the famous Hawksmoor Towers of Oxford University's All Souls' College, which are ivory in colour (or at least, they were when they were built in 1716). The relative lateness of the first uses of the phrase (below) tend to argue against that derivation.
|
Source:
Ivory tower - meaning and origin.
Sadly, literary devices such as simile and metaphor are being replaced with LOLZ, WAZZUP, and ROTFLMAO.
Ok - I'll get off my soapbox now...
-Z-man.
PS: BTW...
Quote:
A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech, often about a political subject. The term originates from the days when speakers would elevate themselves by standing on a wooden crate originally used for shipment of soap or other dry goods from a manufacturer to a retail store.
The term is also used metaphorically to describe a person engaging in often flamboyant impromptu or unofficial public speaking, as in the phrases "He's on his soapbox", or "Get off your soapbox." Hyde Park, London is known for its Sunday soapbox orators, who have assembled at Speakers' Corner since 1872 to discuss religion, politics, and other topics. A modern form of the soapbox is a blog: a website on which a user publishes his/her thoughts to whomever they are read by.
|
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapbox