lubberland

English

Etymology

From lubber +‎ land.

Noun

lubberland (plural lubberlands)

1. Synonym of Cockaigne, a land of plenty
   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VII, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 113:

     “Truth!” I cried, “though the Heavens crush me for following her: no Falsehood! though a whole celestial Lubberland were the price of Apostasy.”

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Contrat Social”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book II (The Paper Age), page 54:

     In such prophesied Lubberland, of Happiness, Benevolence, and Vice cured of its deformity, trust not, my friends! Man is not what one calls a happy animal; his appetite for sweet victual is so enormous.

   • 1864 March, “On the Relation of Art to Nature”, in The Atlantic Monthly‎, volume 13, number 77:

     All action and story, all individuality of persons, objects, and events, is merged in a pervading atmosphere of tranquil, sunny repose,—as of a holiday-afternoon. It may seem to us an idle lubberland, a paradise of do-nothings;—Mr. Ruskin sees in it only a "dim, stupid, serene, leguminous enjoyment."

   • 2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 25:

     Lubberland symbolized a place of relaxed, lusty ease, a place of unimpeded libidinal energies and uninterrupted flows of carnal desire that stood in sharp contrast to the disciplined, ordered, and morally upright culture of Byrd's world—the social and cultural universe of the eighteenth century tidewater planter.

Further reading

• “lubberland”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.