sunlit uplands

English

WOTD – 24 April 2021

Etymology

From sunlit (“illuminated by sunlight”) + uplands (“areas in the interior of a country with a generally higher elevation”) (evoking a pleasant, happy place), popularized by its use in the “This was their finest hour” speech delivered by Winston Churchill (1874–1965), the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to the House of Commons on 18 June 1940:[1] see the quotation.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsʌnlɪt ˈʌpləndz/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsʌnlɪt ˈʌpləndz/, /-ˈəp-/
Hyphenation: sun‧lit up‧lands

Noun

sunlit uplands pl (plural only)

(Britain, figuratively) A wished-for place or time of happiness and prosperity.
Synonym: sunny uplands
- 1857, Scottish Society for the Conversion of Israel, “To the Jew first”, in The Friend of Israel, volume III: January 1856 — February 1867, Glasgow: Thomas Murray and Son, page 305:
  We find in the nation as a whole, the people chosen of God to preserve his name and worship throughout many generations, moving on the sunlit uplands, while the world sat in shadow beneath.
- 1898, Ralph Connor, Black Rock, a Tale of the Selkirks, Toronto: The Westminster Co., page 94:
  A man, to see far, must climb to some height, and I was too much upon the plain in those days to catch even a glimpse of distant sunlit uplands of triumphant achievement that lie beyond the valley of self-sacrifice.
- 1940 June 18, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister, “War Situation”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Commons Official Report (House of Commons of the United Kingdom)‎, volume 362, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, ISSN 0261-8303, OCLC 145394668, archived from the original on 23 April 2021, column 61:
  [Adolf] Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

Translations

wished-for place or time of happiness and prosperity

References

“sunlit uplands, n.” under “sunlit, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, April 2020; “sunlit uplands, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1] “sunlit uplands, n.” under “sunlit, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, April 2020; “sunlit uplands, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.