bucolic
adjective
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The Origin of Bucolic Is "Utterly" Quaint
We get bucolic from the Latin word bucolicus, which is ultimately from the Greek word boukolos, meaning "cowherd." When bucolic was first used in English as an adjective in the early 17th century, it meant "pastoral" in a narrow sense—that is, it referred to things related to shepherds or herdsmen and in particular to pastoral poetry. Later in the 19th century, it was applied more broadly to things rural or rustic. Bucolic has also been occasionally used as a noun meaning "a pastoral poem" or "a bucolic person."
Examples of bucolic in a Sentence
Ian Frazier, On the Rez, 2000
… the massive population growth has transformed a collection of bucolic villages and mill towns into a chain of strip-mall suburbs.
—Jonathan Cohn, New Republic, 7 Feb. 2000
… Intel gives its generations of microprocessors such bucolic code names as Deschutes, Tillamook, and Katmai but then rolls them out with names that rival those of popes and medieval heads of state: Pentium the III, Celeron the Meek, and Xeon the Magnificent.
—Jake Kirchner, PC Magazine, 25 May 1999
… the North Shore commuter train scuds through bucolic landscape for a while, the rocks and trees permitting glimpses of Appleton Farms …
—John Updike, New England Monthly, October 1989
a bucolic region where farms are still common
Mark R. Francis, Time, 10 May 2025
As for the bucolic scenes: for all their technical prowess, those were actually rooted in the digital Stone Age.
—Vogue, 6 May 2025
The latter sits on 9-hectare farm land that holds both his family holiday home and the Spanish restaurant, a building that boasts sculptural lines, organic shapes and cleverly placed windows that frame the bucolic view.
—Kissa Castaneda, Forbes.com, 1 May 2025
Good things take time, and that’s especially true of the landscape design of our 2025 Idea House in Keswick, Virginia, a bucolic community just a short drive from Charlottesville.
—Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 28 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bucolic
Cite this Entry
“Bucolic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bucolic. Accessed 20 May. 2025.
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bucolic
adjective
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