Xanadu
English
Alternative forms
- Shangdu
Etymology
From Mandarin 上都 (Shàngdū). The first Romanized form comes from Marco Polo's writings in Italian as "Shan-Du". In 1617, Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places discovered, from the Creation unto this Present... by Samuel Purchas was published in London, containing the phrase "In Xamdu did Cublai Can build a stately Palace" on page 472. This was the inspiration for Coleridge's poem which uses the spelling "Xanadu".
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -uː
Proper noun
Xanadu
- The summer capital of Kublai Khan's empire
- 1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan:
- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree.
- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
- 1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan:
See also
- Kaiping
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