Halls of ivy

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 11 Mar 2000 AAllan at AOL.COM wrote (quoting an inquirer):

> >>  I am asking for your help.  The phrase _halls of ivy_ has few references
> in encyclopedias or dictionaries.  Somewhere I remember hearing that it
> referred to the Roman numeral _IV_ for the four original universities in
> this country.  Surely it is not simply from the tradition of planting
> university buildings with ivy?  <<

I don't have an answer yet, but I find this question amusing since it is
so emblematic of popular attitudes toward etymology.  Sort of the opposite
of Occam's Razor, as an extremely far-fetched explanation is advanced
while the obvious and undoubtedly truthful explanation is prefaced with
"Surely it is not simply from..."


Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2