fairyland

See also: fairy land and fairy-land

English

Alternative forms

• fairy land, fairy-land

Etymology

fairy +‎ land

Noun

fairyland (countable and uncountable, plural fairylands)

1. The imaginary land or abode of fairies.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 46:

     These fairy-lands are only seen by very pious people or by those who are gifted with second sight, when in danger of their lives at sea, and they appear where at other times no land is to be found.

   • 2004, Algernon Blackwood, A Prisoner in Fairyland, Kessinger Publishing, page 174:

     Not merely a foolish fairyland of make-believe and dragons and princesses imprisoned in animals, but a fairyland the whole world needs - the sympathy of sweet endeavour, love, gentleness and sacrifice for others.

2. Any place of great natural beauty, or having a magical atmosphere.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     No one who had not observed that for a short distance reeds had taken the place of shrubs, could possibly have guessed the existence of such a stream or dreamed of the fairyland beyond. For a fairyland it was - the most wonderful that the imagination of man could conceive. The thick vegetation met overhead, interlacing into a natural pergola, and through this tunnel of verdure in a golden twilight flowed the green, pellucid river, beautiful in itself, but marvelous from the strange tints thrown by the vivid light from above filtered and tempered in its fall.

   • 2005, A War Nurse's Diary: Sketches from a Belgian Field Hospital, page 63:

     After months of darkness, mud and shuttered shops, what a delight to see gay streets filled with stores, all gorgeous in a Christmas fairyland of decoration.

Synonyms

• dreamworld

Translations

the imaginary land or abode of fairies

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 仙境 (zh) (xiānjìng), 洞天 (zh) (dòngtiān)

• Danish: eventyrland n
• Finnish: satumaa (fi)
• French: royaume des fées m, pays des fées m
• German: Märchenland (de) n
• Hindi: परियों का देश m (pariyõ kā deś)
• Hungarian: tündérország (hu), meseország (hu)
• Ido: feolando (io)
• Japanese: 仙境 (ja) (せんきょう, senkyō), 妖精の国 (yōsei no kuni)
• Kyrgyz: сыйкырдуу өлкө (ky) (sıykırduu ölkö)
• Latin: terra divalis
• Malay: keinderaan
• Norwegian: eventyrland n

  Nynorsk: eventyrland n

• Portuguese: mundo das fadas m
• Russian: ска́зочная страна́ f (skázočnaja straná), волше́бная страна́ f (volšébnaja straná)
• Scots: Elfame, Elphyne, fary
• Swedish: sagoland (sv) n
• Turkish: masallar ülkesi, periler ülkesi
• Urdu: پرستان m (paristān)
• Volapük: feyalän (vo), märalän (vo)

Adjective

fairyland (not comparable)

1. Having qualities ascribed to fairies and their realm; fanciful, delicate, surreal, or diminutive.

   The children built a fairyland cottage out of gingerbread, decorated with gumdrops and peppermint sticks.

References

• “fairyland”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.