Godzone

English

WOTD – 7 February 2025

Etymology

Contraction of God’s own country, modelled after zone (“area or region of the world”).[1] The word was possibly modified from the title of the poem “God’s Own Country” (1890) by the New Zealand poet and politician Thomas Bracken (1843–1898).[2]

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɡɒdzəʊn/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɡɑdˌzoʊn/
  • Audio (General American):(file)
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈɡɒdzʌʉn/
  • Hyphenation: God‧zone

Proper noun

Godzone

  1. (New Zealand, informal) New Zealand. [from 20th c.]
    • 1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 95:
      It always looks so ridiculous, Joe hefty and twice his child's size – but that's the way we do it in good old Godzone.

Translations

References

  1. ^ “Godzone, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ Laura Thornber (18 September 2018) “Godzone: Is New Zealand Really Heaven on Earth?”, in Stuff‎[1], archived from the original on 6 December 2018:
    Irish-Kiwi scribe, politician and proud New Zealand patriot Thomas Bracken described his adopted homeland as “God of nations” in the 1876 poem that would become the national anthem and, in 1890, wrote an ode to Aotearoa entitled God’s Own Country, likely spawning our self-conferred nickname Godzone.

Further reading

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