fairy-land

See also: fairy land and fairyland

English

Noun

fairy-land (countable and uncountable, plural fairy-lands)

1. Alternative form of fairyland.
   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Emma: […], volume III, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 18:

     Dear Miss Woodhouse, how do you do?—Very well I thank you, quite well. This is meeting quite in fairy-land!—Such a transformation!—Must not compliment, I know—(eyeing Emma most complacently)—that would be rude—but upon my word, Miss Woodhouse, you do look—how do you like Jane’s hair?

   • 1852 December, G. M. C., “A Legend of the Snow-Drop”, in The Northern Magazine, Belfast: Henry Greer, […], published 1853, page 290, column 1:

     She was beautiful, and he said that he would love her always with a love unchangeable as were all things in fairy-land; […]

   • 1882 October 7, “The Life of George Cruikshank: in Two Epochs. By Blanchard Jerrold. […]”, in The Athenæum: Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama, number 2867, London: […] John C. Francis, […], page 471, column 1:

     We may add, and our author has knowledge of the fact, that not even the Germans, those masterly delineators and imaginators of fairy-land, have shown greater or more exquisite insight into the lives and ways of elfs and fays than that which was shown by George Cruikshank.

   • 1896 May 1, H. P. Robinson, “Digressions. V.—The Convention.”, in The British Journal of Photography, volume XLIII, number 1878, London: Henry Greenwood & Co., […], page 277, column 1:

     It is now becoming one of the best-known facts in the history of photography that the annual meeting of the Convention, wherever it is held, is the happiest place to enjoy talking shop in the world; it is a fairy-land of make-believe, and is not only harmless, but salutary.