Trend Watch

Cornucopia

From a Greek legend to a symbol of holiday abundance ...

When:

Lookups spiked on November 26, 2013.

Why:

Cornucopia, a traditional symbol of Thanksgiving, sees increasing lookups each year as the holiday approaches.

In its original and iconic meaning, a cornucopia is "a curved goat's horn overflowing with fruit and ears of grain that is used as a decorative motif emblematic of abundance."

It has also come to mean "abundance" in a more general sense, as in this recent headline in the Detroit Free Press: "Metro Detroit chefs present a cornucopia of recipes for Thanksgiving."

The symbol of the cornucopia comes from a Greek legend in which the nymph Amalthea nurtured the baby Zeus with the milk of a goat. The horn of her goat came to represent abundance in art, architecture, and design.

Cornucopia comes from the Latin words meaning "horn of plenty" (and "copia" is also the root of the English word copious).


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