Hermit Kingdom
1
8.8
- noun
- Literature
:
Reino Ermitaño
- The northern part of the Hermit Kingdom had lots of people and resources to suck the living blood out of; it took Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il much effort to ruin such a beautiful countryside.
Examples
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Ironic, given that it was Korea, not Japan, that was once dubbed "the Hermit Kingdom" by frustrated Western conquistadors in days of yore.
Blog text (33) -
Which is good for Obama in that it was an implicit rebuke of his food deal with the Hermit Kingdom.
Blog text (19) -
It could be a good time to look at the Hermit Kingdom's domestically focused consumer stocks.
Blog text (25) -
The year 2011 saw both the ascension of Kim Jong Un, after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late December, as well as renewed questions about life inside the Hermit Kingdom.
Blog text (26) -
U.S. forces ousted Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq but offered concessions to North Korea in the face of the Hermit Kingdom's nuclear defiance.
Academic text (2008) -
North Korea's isolationist policies have led many to refer to the country as the Hermit Kingdom.
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The Hermit Kingdom remains largely closed to foreign visitors, limiting their understanding of its culture.
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Analysts debate the implications of North Korea's status as a Hermit Kingdom in today's globalized world.
Synonyms
103
1.8
A country in East Asia on the northern part of the Korean Peninsula
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a country that deliberately isolates itself' is directly derivable from combining 'hermit' (someone who isolates) with 'kingdom' (a country or state). The figurative extension from an isolated person to an isolated country is a regular, transparent metaphorical compounding that a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer.
Etymology
Hermit Kingdom comes from the image of a hermit — a person who lives alone — and a kingdom, a country; imagine a whole country acting like a lone person and keeping its doors closed. That's why the phrase means 'a country that isolates itself'.