Monday, January 21, 2013

Camelot

Camelot \KAM-uh-lot\, noun:

1. Any idyllic place or period, especially one of great happiness.
2. The legendary site of King Arthur's palace and court, possibly near Exeter, England.
3. The glamorous ambience of Washington, D.C., during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, 1961–63.

A tiny house next to it had been the girl's home for all the summers of her short life. It was her castle, her retreat, her hideaway, her Camelot.
-- Matina Psyhogeos, Reaching for the Sky
His father's voice brought him out of his Camelot reverie. Probably the old man was reading his mind and that would account for his sardonic smile under the raised eyebrows.
-- Ward S. Just, Forgetfulness

Camelot may or may not have ever been a real place. Some have claimed that it corresponds to Camuladonum, the Roman forerunner of Colchester, which was an impressive palace in the Middle Ages, but Elizabethans tended to see it as Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort near Glastonbury. Regardless, it has been associated with a place of wealth and beauty since the 1100s.

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