A.Word.A.Day--cockaigne

Wordsmith.org

The Magic of Words

May 11, 2010

This week's theme
Words derived after mythical places

This week's words
utopia
cockaigne

The Land of Cockaigne

Art: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569)

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

cockaigne

PRONUNCIATION:

(kaw-KAYN)

MEANING:

noun: An imaginary land of luxury and idleness.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Middle French pais de cocaigne (land of plenty), from Middle Low German kokenje, diminutive of koke (cake). Cockaigne was a fabled place of ease and luxury, a land overflowing with milk and honey where food fell into your mouth by itself. It was an imaginary place a medieval peasant could aspire to, a place away from the harsh reality of life.

USAGE:

"This was a land of Cockaigne, a place of total self-indulgent enchantment where I sat alone for hours contemplating."
Christopher Moore; Broad Horizons; The Press (Christchurch, New Zealand); Jan 4, 1999.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it. -George Marshall, US Army Chief, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Nobel laureate (1880-1959)

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