Xanadu | Word of the Day

December 04, 2017 Xanadu [zan-uh-doo, -dyoo] noun 1. a place of great beauty, luxury, and contentment. word facts Arabic Words You Don't Know You're Using ways to say 'Tis the Season for Festive Holiday Phrases WORD OF THE DAY Xanadu continued... QUOTES So now there is this Xanadu, a ghost town from birth. On paper it is the second richest place in China, per capita income just behind Shanghai. -- Ken Liu, "The Long Haul: From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009," Clarkesworld, November 2014 ORIGIN Xanadu is associated with the English poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) in his poem "Kubla Khan," written in a "reverie" (possibly inspired by opium) in 1797. The first two lines run: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure dome decree:" Kubla (Kublai) Khan (1215–94) was the grandson of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan (1162-1227) and was the first emperor of the Chinese Yuan dynasty. Xanadu is from Chinese (Mandarin) Shàngdū ("Upper Capital"), now in Inner Mongolia about 220 miles north of Beijing. Xanadu first entered English in the 17th century. MORE FROM THE WEB OTHERS ARE READING 1 Our 2017 Word of the Year Is Complicit A reflection on words that impacted all of us this year. 2 History: Dictionary.com's Word of the Year To remember all of our past Word of the Year selections 3 Advice vs. Advise What are the differences between the two? 4 This Quiz Could Be Macaronic Take your chance to scrimshank! 5 Better Than Bakemeat...Nosh On This Quiz! Restart your brain with the Word of the Day Quiz. © 2017 Dictionary.com, LLC. ABOUT CONTACT You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: matzom229@gmail.com Subscriber since: September 06, 2017 Unsubscribe Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Manage your subscription Terms & Privacy