English Explanatory Dictionary

Lake Wobegon

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A fictional place in the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average”. Serves as a proxy for the American small town, particularly the American small town of the Upper Midwest.

Word forms

Lake Wobegon

Etymology

Coined by American radio personality Garrison Keillor in 1976, from lake + woebegone, but explained as derived from an Ojibwe word with the meaning "the place where we waited all day in the rain [for you].".

Derived words

Lake Wobegon effect
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