Table of Contents
The BFD Word of the Day
The word for today is…
utopia (noun)
1 : a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions
2 : an impractical scheme for social improvement
3 : an imaginary and indefinitely remote place
Source : Merriam -Webster
Etymology : In 1516, English humanist Sir Thomas More published a book titled Utopia. It compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those of an ideal society on an imaginary island located off the coast of the Americas. More wanted to imply that the perfect conditions on his fictional island could never really exist, so he called it Utopia, a name he created by combining the Greek words ou (meaning “no, not”) and topos (meaning “place,” a root used in our word topography). The earliest generic use of utopia was for an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. The current use of utopia, referring to an ideal place or society, was inspired by More’s description of Utopia’s perfection. It’s antonym, dystopia, was first used in 1950. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ was published in 1949.
If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.
