DOUG'S WORD OF THE WEEK

ivory tower / EYE-vuh-ree TOU-uhr / noun: 1. A place or state of privileged seclusion, disconnected with practical matters and harsh realities of life.

Notes & Etymology: From a 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). 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

DOUG'S WORD OF THE WEEK

Bolide / boh-lahyd, -lid / noun: 1. an exceptionally bright meteor. 2. Any extraterrestrial body that collides with Earth. 3. A fireball

Notes & Etymology: From the Greek βολίς (bolis) which can mean a missile or to flash. The bolide term is generally used more often among geologists than astronomers where it means a very large impactor. For example, the USGS uses the term to mean a generic large crater-forming projectile. Astronomers tend to use the term to mean an exceptionally bright fireball, particularly one that explodes (sometimes called a detonating fireball).
Usage: “The smallest impactor that can penetrate the atmosphere deep enough to cause any damage on the ground is not much smaller than the "Tunguska" bolide that flattened a couple thousand square miles of Siberian forest in 1908. "
Alan Harris, senior research scientist for the Space Science Institute