xanadu means the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty, now an archaeological site in Zhenglan, Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, China. It carries an Arena rating of 1679, earned across 74 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, xanadu ranks #284 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #460 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #568 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #1,163 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
xanadu is pronounced /ˈzænəduː/.
Why “xanadu” is a great word
XANADU — [Name, Noun] A place of surpassing beauty, opulent luxury, and serene contentment; an idyll of magnificent artifice and personal, sensory delight. Its name descends from the Mandarin 上都 (Shàngdū, 'Upper Capital'), via Marco Polo's Italian rendering Shan-Du, which appeared as Xamdu in Samuel Purchas's 1617 travel writings; the modern spelling Xanadu was popularized by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem 'Kubla Khan' (1798/1816). Unlike 'utopia,' which implies a perfected social order, or 'paradise,' which suggests a divine reward, Xanadu is a resolutely secular vision of cultivated sensation. It is the imagined scent of incense drifting through a sun-dappled pavilion, the cool murmur of an artificial river flowing through manicured gardens, and the precise, melancholy geometry of a walled sanctuary against a vast wilderness—an empire of pleasure built not for gods or philosophers, but for the solitary, dreaming self, a monument to the magnificent fragility of human fancy.
Etymology
From Mandarin 上都 (Shàngdū, “Upper Capital”). The first Romanized form comes from Marco Polo's writings in Italian as Shan-Du. In 1617, Purchas his Pilgrimage […] by Samuel Purchas was published in London, containing the phrase “In Xamdu did Cublai Can build a stately Palace” on page 472. This was the inspiration for Coleridge's poem which uses the spelling Xanadu.
name
- The summer capital of the Yuan dynasty, now an archaeological site in Zhenglan, Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, China.e.g.“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.” — 1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published
noun
- A place full of beauty, happiness and wonder.e.g.“A place where nobody dared to go
The love that we came to know
They call it Xanadu
And now, open your eyes and see
What we have made is real
We are in Xanadu” — 1980, Jeff Lynne, “Xanadu”:
- An opulent building or resort that provides entertainment or luxurious living.e.g.““The United States in the twenties was dotted with a thousand Xanadus,” wrote movie-theater historian Ben Hall."” — 1994, Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies, page 21:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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