Freedonia

Fictional nation Freedonia, Fredonia or Fredon is the name given to several fictional countries. The name was used for some aspects of the United States in the 19th century, and later popularized by the 1933 Marx Brothers film Duck Soup where it was the name of the fictional country in which the film was set. Over time, the word has come to have a more generic meaning, anything from a noun describing a plausible yet fictional country, to an adjective ("Freedonian") used to characterize a place like the Freedonia of Duck Soup. Because the Marx Brothers' film had so many qualities—autocracy, diminutiveness, and obscurity, to name but a few—a place can be described as "Freedonian" for having any one of these qualities. Usage 19th century As a name for the United States Samuel Mitchill suggested that 'Fredonian' be used by citizens of the United States ("Fredon") after the American Revolution in place of the demonym "American", which was then being used as a pejorative term by the metropolitan English to refer to "their inferior and far-removed colonists". In Vol. VI, Part IV, of the Medical Repository, 1803, pp. 449–50, Mitchill, wrote the following under the heading of "Medical