cornucopia

cornucopia

See also: cornucópia

English

WOTD – 25 May 2008

A cornucopia motif.

Etymology

From Latin cornūcōpia (“mythical horn of plenty”), from cornū (“horn”) + cōpia (“abundance”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkɔː.nəˈkəʊ.pi.ə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkɔːɹ.nəˈkoʊ.pi.ə/, /ˌkɔːɹ.njəˈkoʊ.pi.ə/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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Noun

cornucopia (countable and uncountable, plural cornucopias)

1. (Greek mythology) A goat's horn endlessly overflowing with fruit, flowers and grain; or full of whatever its owner wanted: or, an image of a such a horn, either in two or three dimensions.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, page 59:

     It soon came: as they were on their way to a transparency of their majesties, not a little larger than life—with Bellona, in a very handsome helmet, on one side, and Peace, with a cornucopia and a full blown wreath of roses, on the other—the path was interrupted by a little knot of gentlemen.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 105:

     There are other mysteries expressed by the bison horn, the Paleolithic original of which the classical cornucopia is a copy: the horn of plenty is the universal vulva from which emerge all the creatures of life, plants, animals, and humans.

2. A hollow horn- or cone-shaped object, filled with edible or useful things.
3. An abundance or plentiful supply.

   The store provided a veritable cornucopia of modern gadgets.

   • 2020 April 21, Marina Harss, “Twist, Bend, Reach, Step: A Merce Cunningham Solo Anyone Can Try”, in The New York Times‎:

     These days, thanks to the cornucopia of online dance classes and tutorials, you can almost imagine yourself to be a dancer.

Synonyms

• horn of plenty
• See also Thesaurus:cornucopia

Derived terms

Derived terms

• cornucopia machine
• cornucopian
• cornucopiate
• pornocopia

Related terms

• copious

Translations

mythical horn endlessly overflowing with food and drink

Armenian: առատության եղջյուր (hy) (aṙatutʿyan ełǰyur) Bulgarian: рог на изоби́лието m (rog na izobílieto) Burmese: ပဒေသာပင် (my) (pa.desapang) Catalan: corn de l'abundància m Chinese: Mandarin: 豐饒之角／丰饶之角 (fēngráo zhī jiǎo) Czech: roh hojnosti m Danish: overflødighedshorn n Dutch: hoorn des overvloeds Esperanto: abundokorno Finnish: runsaudensarvi (fi) French: corne d'abondance (fr) f German: Füllhorn (de) n Greek: κέρας της Αμάλθειας n (kéras tis Amáltheias) Ancient: Ἀμαλθείας κέρας n (Amaltheías kéras) Hungarian: bőségszaru (hu) Icelandic: nægtahorn n Irish: corn na flúirse m Japanese: コルヌー・コピアイ (korunū-kopiai) Kazakh: молшылық мүйізі (molşylyq müiızı) Latin: cornucopia Polish: róg obfitości (pl) m, róg Amaltei (pl) m Portuguese: cornucópia (pt) f Russian: рог изоби́лия (ru) m (rog izobílija) Serbo-Croatian: Roman: rog obilja m; kornukopija (sh) f Spanish: cornucopia (es) f, cuerno de la abundancia m Swedish: ymnighetshorn (sv) Tagalog: kornukopya

hollow horn- or cone-shaped object, filled with edible or useful things

Chinese: Mandarin: 角形裝飾物／角形装饰物 (jiǎoxíng zhuāngshìwù) Danish: overflødighedshorn n Finnish: runsaudensarvi (fi)

abundance or plentiful supply

Chinese: Mandarin: 聚寶盆／聚宝盆 (zh) (jùbǎopén), 寶庫／宝库 (zh) (bǎokù) Czech: přehršel (cs) f, přehršle (cs) f, spousta (cs) f, habaděj (cs) n Danish: overflod c Finnish: runsaudensarvi (fi) French: corne d'abondance (fr) f German: Fülle (de) f Hungarian: bőségszaru (hu) Japanese: 宝庫 (ja) (ほうこ, hōko) Norwegian: overflod Polish: obfitość (pl) f, róg obfitości (pl) m, róg Amaltei (pl) m Portuguese: cornucópia (pt) f Russian: изоби́лие (ru) n (izobílije)

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Italian

Noun

cornucopia f (plural cornucopie)

1. cornucopia

Anagrams

• rioccupano

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Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koɾnuˈkopja/ [koɾ.nuˈko.pja]
• Rhymes: -opja
• Syllabification: cor‧nu‧co‧pia

Noun

cornucopia f (plural cornucopias)

1. cornucopia

Further reading

• “cornucopia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014