Land of the Long White Cloud
New ZealandNew Zealand.
Meaning
1 senses(poetic)New Zealand.
Origin
Loose calque of Māori Aotearoa, from ao (“cloud, daytime, world”), tea (“white”), and roaLoose calque of Māori Aotearoa, from ao (“cloud, daytime, world”), tea (“white”), and roa (“long, tall”). Allegedly the first English-language mention was in the February, 1916, New Zealand School Journal (King, 2004). Probably a reference to the appearance of mountainous land when seen on the horizon from a canoe after an ocean voyage.
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