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)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

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^[1]:

     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 (zh), 聚宝盆 (zh) (jùbǎopén), 寶庫 (zh), 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