Adjective - Denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful.
Noun - 1)A mythical bird said by ancient writers to breed in a nest floating at sea at the winter solstice, charming the wind and waves into calm. 2)A tropical Asian and African kingfisher with brightly coloured plumage.
Origin- Late Middle English (in the mythological sense): via Latin from the Greek alkuōn 'kingfisher' (also halkuōn, by association with hals 'sea' and kuōn 'conceiving').
I chose this one because I always want to pronounce it wrongly (that Y is somehow in the wrong place) and because I didn't really know what it meant. What a pleasant surprise: not only does it have two meanings but the first contains the word 'idyllically' and the second refers to a mythical bird. What more could you want? Well, perhaps another definition with something to do with microchips or advanced technology, seeing as it sounds like a futuristic word. I imagine something like: 3) A fully robotic Asian kingfisher with brightly coloured laser eyes.
Yet another example of why they should employ me to write dictionary definitions.
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