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Cloud cuckoo land is a state of absurdly, over-optimistic fantasy or an unrealistically idealistic state of mind where everything appears to be perfect. Someone who is said to "live in cloud cuckoo land" is a person who thinks that things that are completely impossible might happen, rather than understanding how things really are.[1] It also hints that the person referred to is naive, unaware of realities or deranged in holding such an optimistic belief.
In the modern world, a "cloud cuckoo lander" is defined as someone who is seen as "crazy" or "strange" by most average people, often doing or saying things that seemingly only make sense to themselves, but also exhibiting cleverness at times in ways no one else would think of.[citation needed]
Cockaigne, the land of plenty in medieval myth, can be considered the predecessor to the modern day cloud cuckoo land. It was an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures were always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval peasant life did not exist.
- ^ "Cloud Cuckoo land". Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Retrieved 2015-07-23.