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’. (more…)
Tag Archives: Wordwatch
WordWatch: Jeremiah
Word Watch
If someone accuses you of being ‘a real Jeremiah’, what are they saying about you? Is it a compliment or an insult? Last year, Anu Garg had a go at offering a definition. For the uninitiated (i.e. the non-word-obsessives), Anu is the Indian-born, American computer and word geek who runs ‘A Word a Day’ (http://wordsmith.org/awad), a free daily email newsletter with 600,000 subscribers in 200 countries. What did he make of ‘Jeremiah’? Here’s his explanation:
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A house divided
Word Watch
Over the centuries, the Bible has contributed many familiar, everyday expressions to the English language—far more than most 21st-century unbelievers would be prepared to credit. For example, there’s the expression ‘a house divided’. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the Republican State Convention in Illinois in which he said, (more…)
The ever-flowing river of language
Couldn't Help Noticing
As a linguistic pedant, I’ve grown to love the precision of Kel Richards and his WordWatch column. As a Bible-believing evangelical, I can see the merit in calling myself a ‘fundamentalist’ in the more literal sense of the word. So imagine my horror when Kel Richards took such a term to task some time ago (Briefing #301, 2003). But he was right that “words don’t stand still… in the ever-flowing river that is the English language”. Hence I have reluctantly relinquished the label—at least for now. (more…)
Bowels
Life, Word Watch
As a young Christian, I was torn between bafflement, amusement and embarrassment when the good old King James Version was read aloud in church, and we heard Paul telling the Philippians that he longed after them “in the bowels of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:8). I mean, it almost sounds blasphemous, doesn’t it? Or, at the very least, an invasion of privacy. Did we really need to hear that in church? And then a bit later on in the same letter, Paul is at it again: “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies …” (Phil 2:1).