Dictionary

Lake Wobegon en · NOUN

Etymology

From the name of the fictional town Lake Wobegon, created by Garrison Keillor as the setting of the recurring segment “News from Lake Wobegon” for the radio program A Prairie Home Companion, aired live from 1974 to 2016 from Saint Paul, Minnesota. The figurative senses derive from recurrent elements of the monologue, specifically “the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve” and “Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average”.

Meanings

1. (US, figuratively) An idealized, close-knit small-town community.
   • There, in a setting suspiciously similar to Lake Wobegon, I’ve chronicled the feats of the incomparable John Gagliardi, head coach at Division III powerhouse St. John’s. 2009, Austin Murphy, Saturday Rules: Why College Football Outpasses, Outclasses, and Flat-Out Surpasses the NFL, page 5:
2. (US, figuratively) A situation in which everyone is thought to be above average or exceptionally successful.
   • Leftists seem to live in a Lake Wobegon world where everyone is above average and they cannot understand that in any numerical distribution there is always a bottom 10 percent and a top 10 percent—yes, and even a top and bottom one percent. 2019, Anthony Walsh, chapter 8, in A Nation Divided: The Conflicting Personalities, Visions, and Values of Liberals and Conservatives, page 86:
   • Home to an elite university, this exclusive enclave in central New Jersey was known for its appealing colonial architecture, skyrocketing real estate prices, and high SAT scores among its above-average public and private school population—Lake Wobegon had nothing on Grantham. 2004, Tracy Kelleher, It’s All About Eve...:

Forms

Deriveds

Lake Wobegon effect

wikipedia: Saint Paul, Minnesota · wikipedia: Garrison Keillor · wikipedia: Lake Wobegon