Meaning
A state of happiness built on illusion or false hope and destined to end in disappointment. It is used to warn about, or quietly pity, someone who is blissfully unaware that their comfort rests on something untrue - a false promise, a misread situation, or a doomed expectation. Disapproving or pitying in tone; almost always used about someone else's misplaced happiness rather than one's own. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean origin).
Origin
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 4: the Nurse, acting for Juliet, warns Romeo 'if you should lead her in a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behavior' - the tag 'as they say' already marking the expression as proverbial. It was indeed old: The Phrase Finder first records it in the Paston Letters of 1462 ('I wold not be in a folis paradyce'), more than a century before Shakespeare, who also used it in Love's Labour's Lost. His Romeo and Juliet staging is simply the most famous appearance of a medieval expression, which has remained in continuous use for a state of happiness founded on false hope.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- in a fool's paradise
- live in a fool's paradise
Usage Examples
- If he believes the review is a mere formality, he is living in a fool's paradise.
- Deferring the repairs bought the plant a fool's paradise of one more quiet year.
- She called the truce a fool's paradise and predicted trouble within the month.