{
  "id": "down-to-earth.level",
  "term": "down to earth",
  "sense": "level",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 21,
  "domain": "model and reality",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a self-model held at the range others actually occupy, the one elevation that costs no maintenance because there is no distance to hold.",
  "folk_gloss": "practical and unpretentious despite having reasons not to be",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "range.spatial",
      "others.distinct-entities",
      "level.spatial",
      "ground.level",
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "hold.physical",
      "actually.real"
    ],
    "interaction": "Elevation must be held against the pull of shared readings, and holding is a running cost; a model kept level with the range others occupy is read without any angle, so its upkeep is the cheapest of any placement.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "zero-maintenance placement",
      "read without an angle",
      "level with the occupied range"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The senior surgeon who takes histories herself is trusted faster than the one announced by her titles.",
      "domain": "medicine"
    },
    {
      "text": "The band that loads its own gear keeps a model of itself the crew can confirm.",
      "domain": "music"
    },
    {
      "text": "The phrase is only ever used of someone with somewhere higher available, which is what makes the level placement visible at all.",
      "domain": "language"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "high-horse.mounted",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "the high horse is elevation held at a running cost and read from below; down to earth is the level placement that costs nothing to hold and is read straight on"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "down to earth"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-08-22",
    "confidence": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — keeping reality out"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-down-to-earth.level"
}