Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or characteristic of the countryside or its people; rustic. See Synonyms at rural.
- adj. Of or characteristic of shepherds or flocks; pastoral.
- n. A pastoral poem.
- n. A farmer or shepherd; a rustic.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pastoral; relating to country affairs, or to a shepherd's life and occupation: as, bucolic song.
- Agricultural: used humorously or in disparagement.
- n. [⟨ L. bucolicum, pl. bucolica, neut. of bucolicus: see I.] A pastoral poem, representing rural affairs, or the life, manners, and occupation of shepherds: as, the bucolics of Theocritus and Virgil.
- n. A writer of pastorals.
- n. A countryman; a farmer: used humorously or in depreciation.
Wiktionary
- adj. Rustic, pastoral, country-styled.
- adj. Pertaining to herdsmen or peasants.
- n. A pastoral poem.
- n. A rustic, peasant
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to the life and occupation of a shepherd; pastoral; rustic.
- n. A pastoral poem, representing rural affairs, and the life, manners, and occupation of shepherds.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (used with regard to idealized country life) idyllically rustic
- n. a country person
- n. a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life
- adj. relating to shepherds or herdsmen or devoted to raising sheep or cattle
Etymologies
- Latin būcolicus, pastoral, from Greek boukolikos, from boukolos, cowherd : bous, cow; see gwou- in Indo-European roots + -kolos, herdsman; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“I tallied up my day spent basking in bucolic bliss ... and realized how it all added up to good business!”
“We had a perfect ceremony on a covered bridge in bucolic upstate New York, which was followed by a fun and lively reception filled with the best of friends and — of course — Long Island wines.”
“The setup is simplicity itself: a small 19th century village tries to live in bucolic harmony and peace, while the surrounding woods bristle with unseen creatures.”
““THE ISLE”:: shocking art-house drama about sexual manipulation set in bucolic countryside.”
“With the help of his partner, Brent Ridge, known to fans as Dr. Brent on The Martha Stewart Show, they pack up their big city belongings from their small city apartment and a good chunk of their savings account to live the so-called bucolic life on the farm.”
“These may not make a dent in the household budget of what Fearnley-Whittingstall describes as the "bucolic, rose-tinted world" of the River Cottage, but will impact heavily on those struggling in a tough economic climate to feed their families.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“The former rodeo performer and announcer came to Palm Springs in 1927 and rented horses to tourists in the desert oasis known as a bucolic winter getaway for riding and hiking.”
“Dimock is a tiny town in the midst of green fields and sloping ridgelines -- the kind of bucolic countryside that drew me to this region over a decade ago.”
“In it, a writer's retreat in rural England provides the backdrop for a story that can mock both the pretentiousness of artists and the "bucolic" life in which kids trapped in small villages despair of anything ever happening.”
“Earlier this year I drove a black Audi A3 up into the hills of the Cévennes, that area of southern France that acts as a kind of bucolic refuge for Frenchmen and Frenchwomen who never really adapted to the failure of their 1968 dreams.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bucolic’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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set phasers to...
you name the setting
I've tuned mine to be gentler and kinder
following suit is not mandatory but would be appreciatedcoddle, confuse, flummox, tap, furrow, instigate, invigorate, punnify, logical, must... act... be..., bowdlerise, laughing gas and 419 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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GRE
abase, broach, brocade, burgeon, bungle, bureaucracy, burly, burnished, browbeat, brusque, bucolic, buffoonery and 20 more...
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xulilux's list
leviathan, destitute, iapetus, caesura, ineffable, eschew, phosphene, fungible, antediluvian, nomenclature, mottle, europa and 84 more...
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brian's biffs
melancholy, bucolic, visceral, cacophony, burlesque, exogenous, epiphany, monetization, accretive, opulent, splendid, seismic and 9 more...
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Ugliest Sounding Words
List words that sound ugly, regardless of meaning
kumquat, milk, meal, jizz, bubonic, fester, goulash, sasquatch, carbuncle, sieve, onomatopoeia, burlesque and 29 more...
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beautiful words
words that sound pretty and have a pretty meaning
bucolic, dalliance, dulcet, ebullience, effervescent, efflorescence, eloquence, felicity, fetching
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weird words
strange words with even stranger meanings
grotesque, coerce, cynosure, beleaguer, harlequin, bucolic, harlequinade
jorge999 Born in Appalachia,
he now lives in the city
--and attends bucolics anonymous...
--jorge999 Nov 5, 2009
beatlephan89 I couldn't agree more skipvia! Whenever my mother uses this word she always sighs saying, "Ahhh, that scene is just so bucolic," and all I can think of is someone barfing in a pasture. Dec 19, 2008
yarb Skipvia may be intested in the citation on salinity. Jun 26, 2008
skipvia The actual meaning of this word is exactly the opposite of what it implies. It has always sounded like someone throwing up to me. Sep 30, 2007
seanmeade derives from Greek boukolikos , "rustic; pastoral," from boukolos, "a cowherd; a herdsman" from bous, "a cow; an ox."
And also from the Indo-European gwou, the Latin root is bos which we get bovine from. Mar 26, 2007