Ruritania

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fictional small country in central Europe, invented by the writer Anthony Hope as the setting for his romantic adventure novels
2. An imaginary Central European kingdom created by the novelist Anthony Hope as the backdrop for The Prisoner of Zenda
3. The made-up European monarchy that Anthony Hope invented for his swashbuckling romances, a place that exists only in fiction

Etymology: Anthony Hope's 1894 novel "The Prisoner of Zenda" needed a kingdom that never existed, and he placed it in the heart of Europe under the name Ruritania. The name was built from the Latin-derived "Ruthenia" and the suffix "-ania," a pattern borrowed from real countries such as Romania, Lithuania and Mauritania. Hope gave it the look of a Central European monarchy, with a romantic court, a rightful king, and a plot against the throne. The invented country proved so appealing that the adjective "Ruritanian" soon came into use to describe anything with the same old-fashioned, operetta-like charm: a lavish, make-believe court, or a politics that seems more stage set than state. The noun has since become a standard term for any fictional, faraway realm of romantic adventure.