Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An imaginary land of easy and luxurious living.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An imaginary country of idleness and luxury; lotus-land.
- n. The land of cockneys; London and its suburbs.
- n. A London cockney.—This nickname is more than four hundred years old. For when Hugh Bigot added artificial fortifications to his naturally strong Castle of Bungey in Suffolk, he gave out this rhythme, therein vaunting it for impregnable:
Wiktionary
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Middle Ages) an imaginary land of luxury and idleness
Etymologies
- Middle English cokaigne, from Old French, from (pais de) cokaigne, (land of) plenty, from Middle Low German kōkenje, diminutive of kōke, cake. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The orchestra will perform Edward Elgar's "Cockaigne" Overture and Vaughan Williams 'Symphony No. 2”
“(Cockaigne) - Cable news talking head/America's Savior Glenn Beck, flush from the success of his "Redefining Honor" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in our Nation's Capital this past weekend, revealed plans for his next audacious stab-at-aggrandizement -- uh, rather, rally to make utterly non-racist Americans finally and justifiably feel good about themselves and their pretty much non-racist ways.”
“Since 'urban fantasy' has caught on, there ought to be a place for its mirror image, stories set in some province of Cockaigne, but without the LOTR / D&D fantasy trappings.”
An Involuntary King, by Nan Hawthorne. Book review and Book Giveaway
“I agree, there should be a niche for stories without magic/monsters set in an invented world - whether it be Lyonesse or Cockaigne.”
An Involuntary King, by Nan Hawthorne. Book review and Book Giveaway
“The Cuccagna, or Cockaigne, was a multistory wooden structure decked out as a hill, a palace, a city, or such.”
“Mitelli engraved thirty-three board games, including the Game of Cockaigne 1691.”
“The Game of Cockaigne has its basis in a popular Bolognese patriotism, and in the spread of the idea that Italy was a land of local specialties.”
“PART III: STREET FOOD 8. Bologna, 1600s: The Game of Cockaigne 9. Naples, late 1700s: Maccheroni-Eaters”
“Perhaps the most popular fables of all told of a Land of Cockaigne, a Land of Plenty, in which there were rivers of wine, fountains of oil, and mountains of cheese, and where roast suckling pigs trotted about on their own, ready to be eaten.”
“Soon canny rulers began to see the Land of Cockaigne as a source of propaganda.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘Cockaigne’.
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Decrypt
This list is a cryptogram.
balafong, canion, ephippium, denshare, Mons Aventinus, chilter, pain-main, verdochio, drawbreeches, navew, lingism, olitorium and 99 more...
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Field Mass
for the same
fanon, armet, wether, filibuster, shadoof, shabrack, mai, sainfoin, sand-crack, panoply, guerdon, flunky and 233 more...
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Tomanian
humdudgeon, bounden, limitrophe, autarkic, bemute, janissary, camarilla, bastion, barbican, machicolation, abacinate, donjon and 28 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for Cockaigne.
blafferty That was lovely. Apr 29, 2011
yarb *Only the phoney... know the way I feel tonight...* Apr 27, 2011
blafferty I emphatically declare its phoniness. Apr 27, 2011
yarb Only if it's phoney. Apr 27, 2011
blafferty I believe Wordnik protocol dictates that I take umbrage at this aspersion.
Apr 27, 2011
bilby A Cockaigne bull story. Apr 27, 2011
blafferty ... or has any reason to. Apr 27, 2011
blafferty ... not that he goes around pronouncing it all the time ... Apr 27, 2011
blafferty This is how my husband pronounces cocaine. Apr 27, 2011