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Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Cockaigne

from Dictionary.com

Cockaigne \kah-KAYN\, noun:
An imaginary land of ease and luxury.

Cockaigne comes from Middle English cokaygne, from Middle French (pais de) cocaigne "(land of) plenty," ultimately adapted or derived from a word meaning "cake."

Trivia: References to Cockaigne are prominent in medieval European lore. George Ellis, in his Specimens of Early English Poets (1790), printed an old French poem called "The Land of Cockaign" (13th century) where "the houses were made of barley sugar and cakes, the streets were paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods for nothing."

Gives one to wonder if this is where "cocaine" derived from.

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