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land of Nod

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Genesis 4:16,[1] first used by Jonathan Swift as a play on words for the modern-day meaning. Compare nod off.

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

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the land of Nod

  1. (poetic) The state of sleep, or an imaginary place that one inhabits when asleep.
    • 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “Dialogue III”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page 214:
      Neverout. Why, miss, if you fall asleep, somebody may get a pair of gloves. / Col. I'm going to the land of Nod.
    • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Land of Nod”, in A Child's Garden of Verses‎[1]:
      From breakfast on through all the day / At home among my friends I stay; / But every night I go abroad / Afar into the land of Nod.
    • 1892, Wenona Gilman [pseudonym; Florence Blackburn White Schoeffel], chapter XXX, in Leonie, The Typewriter‎[2], New York: Norman L. Munro:
      […] but she was too tired for anything under heaven to disturb her, and after a moment of wakeful dreaming she was in the land of Nod!

Translations

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Translations

References

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  1. ^ The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Genesis 4:16: “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the East of Eden.”

Further reading

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