> 2. I think you're right about Cockaign, Robin. I know very little about
it,
> except that it's Schlaraffenland in German, the expression "wie im
> Schlaraffenland" being current idiom (except for such relentless
modernizers
> as Klaus, to whom it may be "archaic").
Martin:
OED2 uses Cockaigne, Cockayne as the headword, and has:
"
[ME. cokaygne, a. OF. coquaigne, cokaigne, mod.F. cocagne, appearing in Sp.
as cucaña, It. cuccagna, in Florio cocagna, cucagna, 'lubberland'.
The Romanic word must have originated in some fabulous geographical
notion. Its derivation has been much discussed, but remains obscure: see
Diez and Littré. Grimm suggested connexion with Ger. kuchen cake, 'because
the houses there were covered with cakes'; cf. quot. 1305. Diez would
connect it with Romanic words meaning 'cake', or with some derivative of L.
coquere to cook, in which Littré and Scheler agree. OF. trouver cocaigne is
'to find the country where good things drop of themselves into the mouth',
to meet with good fortune.]
1. Name of an imaginary country, the abode of luxury and idleness.
"
The first citation is c1305.
Florio, courtesy of the EMEDD:
"lubberland"
(1) Florio (Florio 1598 @ 16131594)
Cocagna, as we say Lubberland.
... there's also, I suppose related, Cloud Cuckoo Land.
[Which, I discover, is first Englished in 1824, in a translation of
Aristophanes' _The Birds_. Odd -- I'd assumed it was earlier.]
Robin
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