[f. Gr. εὐ- (see EU-) + τόπος place. First used by Sir T. More or his friend Peter Giles (see quot. 1516), with a play on UTOPIA (f. Gr. οὐ τόπος, and hence = ‘no place, land of nowhere’), the name of the imaginary country described in More’s famous book with that title. Some later writers have misused the word for Utopia, imagining the latter to be an incorrect spelling; others have correctly used the two words in an antithesis.] A region of ideal happiness or good order.
[1516. Sir T. More or P. Giles, Hexastichon Anemolii Poete Laureati, prefixed to Utopia, Vtopia priscis dicta ob infrequentiam, Nunc ciuitatis æmula Platonicæ … Eutopia merito sum vocanda nomine.]
1556. R. Robinson, trans. Hexastichon in More’s Utopia (ed. 2), S vij a. Wherfore not Utopie, but rather rightely My name is Eutopie, a place of felicitie.
1595. Sidney, Apol. (1891), 19. Sir Thomas Moore’s Eutopia.
1610. Th. Th[orpe], Ded. Healey’s St. Augustine’s City of God. Then [when Healey translated Hall’s Mundus Alter et Idem, he treated] of a deuised Country scarse on earth, now of a desired Citie sure in heauen; then of Vtopia, now of Eutopia.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 255. Certain edicts from a Parliament in Eutopia.
1638. Featley, Strict. Lyndom., II. 23. No more … than it will prove there is a Commonwealth in Eutopia.
