Goshen

English

Etymology

From Hebrew גשן.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: Go‧shen

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Proper noun

Goshen

1. (biblical) The Land of Goshen.
2. A rural community of Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
3. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A small town in Pike County, Alabama.
   2. A small city in Washington County, Arkansas.
   3. A census-designated place in Tulare County, California.
   4. A town in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
   5. A city, the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana.
   6. A small city in Oldham County, Kentucky.
   7. A town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts.
   8. An unincorporated community in Mercer County, Missouri.
   9. A town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire.
   10. An unincorporated community in Cape May County, New Jersey.
   11. A town and village in New York; the village is the county seat of Orange County.
   12. A census-designated place in Clermont County, Ohio.
   13. An unincorporated community in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.
   14. An unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon.
   15. A ghost town in Henderson County, Texas.
   16. An unincorporated community in Parker County, Texas.
   17. An unincorporated community in Walker County, Texas.
   18. A town in Utah County, Utah.
   19. A small town in Addison County, Vermont.
   20. A small town in Rockbridge County, Virginia.
   21. A ghost town and former logging and farming community in Whatcom County, Washington.
   22. An unincorporated community in Upshur County, West Virginia.

Derived terms

• Goshen County
• land o' Goshen

 

Noun

Goshen (plural Goshens)

1. A land of light and plenty.
   • 1820, Walter Scott, The Monastery:

     The possessions of these Abbies were each a sort of Goshen, enjoying the calm light of peace and immunity.

   • 1962, WH Auden, Elizabeth Mayer, translating JW Goethe, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 32:

     Having taken this journey in order to escape the inclemencies I had suffered on the fifty-first parallel, I had hoped, I must confess, to enter a true Goshen on the forty-eighth.