Forms: 4 cokaygn(e, 7 cocquany, 9 cockaigne, -ayne. [ME. cokaygne, a. OF. coquaigne, cokaigne, mod.F. cocagne, appearing in Sp. as cucaña, It. cuccagna, in Florio cocagna, cucagna, ‘lubberland.’
The Romanic word must have originated in some fabulous geographical notion. Its derivation has been much discussed, but remains obscure: see Diez and Littré. Grimm suggested connection with Ger. kuchen cake, ‘because the houses there were covered with cakes’; cf. quot. 1305. Diez would connect it with Romanic words meaning ‘cake,’ or with some derivative of L. coquere to cook, in which Littré and Scheler agree. OF. trouver cocaigne is ‘to find the country where good things drop of themselves into the mouth,’ to meet with good fortune.]
1. Name of an imaginary country, the abode of luxury and idleness.
c. 1305. Land Cokayne, 2 (Philol. Soc., 1862). Fur in see bi west spayngne Is a lond ihote cokaygne … Þoȝ paradis be miri and briȝt Cokaygn is of fairir siȝt. Ibid., 54. All of pasteiis beþ þe walles, Of fleis, of fisse, and ruh met, þe likfullist þat man mai et; Fluren cakes beþ þe scingles alle, Of cherche, cloister, boure, and halle; Þe pinnes beþ fat podinges.
1677. Hobbes, Dial. Com. Laws, 24. All the Contentments and ease which some pleasant Men have Related of the Land of Cocquany.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, III. 137. Infinite railroads and crystal palaces, peace and plenty, cockaigne and dillettantism.
1862. Gen. P. Thompson, in Bradford Advertiser, 15 March, 6/1. Many things … could have been mended if it had been in that land of Cockaigne where everything is allowed to be done twice over.
2. Humorously applied to London, as the country of Cockneys; Cockneydom.
1824. Hist. Gaming, 48. At the high-flying Hells, in the Western parts of Cockaigne.
1842. Tait’s Mag., IX. 244/2. We are bound … to do justice to the Laureate of Cockaigne.
1881. Athenæum, 30 July, 152/1. The writer is evidently a Cockney, accustomed to the ways and feeling of Cockaigne.
Hence Cockaigner = COCKNEY. (rare.)
1842. Tait’s Mag., IX. 239/2. That unfortunate cockaigner, Johnny Keats.
