A cornucopia is literally a horn of plenty deriving as it does from the Latin cornu, meaning horn, and copia, meaning abundance or a copious amount. Overflowing with fruits and vegetables, the cornucopia is still a common sight at Thanksgiving, although the original goat’s horn, a symbol of the nanny-goat that nursed the god Zeus when he was an infant, is now usually replaced by a horn made of straw. The corn of cornucopia is in no way related to the grain corn, but it is related to the corn in unicorn (a one-horned beast), to the corn in Capricorn (the horned goat of astrology), to the corn caused by too-tight shoes (a hornlike protuberance), to the corn in corner (an angle sticking out like a horn), to the corn in cornet (a pastry shaped like a horn), and to the corn in Cornish pastry (Cornish comes from the English county called Cornwall, and Cornwall evolved from Corn-Welsh, so-called because the county sticks out into the sea like a horn).
A conical-shaped delicacy made of layers of flaky pastry dough, enveloping a delectable filling of either whipped cream or custard. This delectable treat is commonly known as the horn-of-plenty, owing to its resemblance to the abundant and overflowing cornucopia, a symbol of abundance and nourishment.