1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
UTOPIA, an ideal commonwealth, or an imaginary country whose inhabitants are supposed to exist under the most perfect conditions possible. Hence the terms Utopia and Utopian are also used to denote any visionary scheme of reform or social theory, especially those which fail to recognize defects inherent in human nature. The word first occurs in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, which was originally published in Latin under the title De Optimo Reipublicae Statu, deque N ova Insula Utopia (Louvain, 1516). It was compounded b…
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- Vol. 27, pp. 823-823