Coined by Thomas More in 1516: Greek 'ou' (not) + 'topos' (place) — literally 'no-place,' punning on 'eu-topia.'
An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect; an idealistic but impractical social scheme.
Coined by Sir Thomas More as the title of his 1516 Latin work 'Utopia,' describing an ideal island commonwealth. From Greek 'ou' (οὐ, not) + 'tópos' (τόπος, place) — literally 'no-place.' More deliberately exploited the pun with 'eu' (εὖ, good) + 'tópos,' which would yield 'eutopia' (good-place). The two Greek prefixes are homophones in English, so 'utopia' simultaneously means 'no-place' and sounds
Thomas More built a bilingual pun into the word 'utopia.' In Greek, 'ou-topia' means 'no-place' — but it sounds identical in English to 'eu-topia,' meaning 'good-place.' More's ideal society is simultaneously the best place imaginable and a place that doesn't exist. The joke is baked into the name. His follow-up coinage 'dystopia' (bad-place) came later