Land of Nod
idiom (humorous)

- an imaginary land of sleep

- the place to which Cain was exiled after the murder of his brother Abel (Genesis 4:16)

Collins Dictionary / Farlex Dictionary

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PHRASE ORIGIN

The phrase “the Land of Nod” was formed as a play on words which links sleeping, that is ‘nodding off’, with the place called Nod which is referred to in the bible.

It has been used punningly to refer to sleep since the 18th century, notably by Jonathan Swift in ‘Polite Conversation ( 1731–8 ): ‘I’m going to the Land of Nod’.

The name Nod was chosen with a purpose. ‘Nod’ (נוד) is the Hebrew root of the verb ‘to wander’ (לנדוד). The implication is that Cain, being in disgrace, was sent to wander aimlessly.

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SWEET DREAMS

The Land of Nod

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.

All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do —
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The strangest things are there for me,
Both things to eat and things to see,
And many frightening sights abroad
Till morning in the land of Nod.

Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
The curious music that I hear.

Robert Louis Stevenson - ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ (1885)

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SYNONYMS

- an idealized place of great or idyllic magnificence and beauty:

above, afterlife, arcadia, Arcadia, Arcady, Avalon, beatitude, Camelot, cloud nine, Cockaigne, dream come true, dreamland, dreamworld, Eden, El Dorado, Elysian Fields, Elysium, empyrean, fairyland, fantasyland, Garden of Eden, halcyon days, Happy Valley, hereafter, idyll, islands of the blessed, kingdom come, LAND OF NOD, lotusland, never-never land, New Jerusalem, next life (world), nirvana, paradise, perfect world, Promised Land, rapture, revelry, seventh heaven, Shangri-la, Shangri-La, Sion, Valhalla,  wonderland, Xanadu, Zion

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“After having worked such long hours, he's ready for THE LAND OF NOD.”

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Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40