lotusland

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The Word of the Day for September 22 is:

lotusland   \LOH-tus-land\   noun 
    *1 : a place inducing contentment especially through offering an idyllic 
living situation 
     2 : a state or an ideal marked by contentment often achieved through 
self-indulgence 

Example sentence:
     With its white sands, stunningly blue water, and beautiful sunsets, the 
island is a lotusland for beach lovers.

Did you know? 
     In the _Odyssey_, Odysseus and his men discover a magical land of 
lotus-eaters. Some of the sailors eat the delicious "lotus" and forget about 
their homeland, pleading to stay forever in this "lotusland." (It is likely 
that the lotus in question was the fruit of a real plant of the buckthorn 
family, perhaps the jujube, whose sweet juice is used in candy making and which 
has given its name to a popular fruity candy.) The label "lotusland" is now 
applied to any place resembling such an ideal of perfection, but it also 
carries connotations of indolence and self-indulgence, possibly derived from 
the way the sailors refused to work once they reached the original lotusland. 
The dreamy unreality of a lotusland is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't 
want to live there. 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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