Pastoral
adjective /ˈpɑːstərəl/ — Of simple, gentle country life — and the art that romanticises it.
Definition
Of or relating to the countryside; depicting or idealising rural life; in literature and music, a genre celebrating the simplicity and beauty of the natural world.
Beyond the definition
Pastoral names both a landscape and an idea — the gentle, unhurried country life that has always attracted people who don't live it. From Virgil's Eclogues to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the pastoral impulse is the civilised world's perpetual longing for its opposite: simplicity, birdsong, the smell of earth.
Origin & history
From Latin pastoralis, from pastor 'shepherd'. The pastoral as a literary genre began with Greek and Roman shepherd poetry — Theocritus and Virgil — and has continued ever since.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
The painting had a pastoral quality that made the city feel very far away.
She described her childhood as pastoral — goats, a well, a school a mile away — without sentimentality.
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is less about countryside than about the feeling of remembering it.
How to use it
This entry uses an adjective. Follow the examples for the nouns it describes and its position in the sentence.
Choose “Pastoral” when the meaning fits your context: Of or relating to the countryside; depicting or idealising rural life; in literature and music, a genre celebrating the simplicity and beauty of the natural world.
Synonyms
Antonyms
urban, industrial, metropolitan
Related words
Pastoral vs bucolic
Pastoral describes a literary or artistic style that idealizes rural life, often with a sense of nostalgia. Bucolic focuses on the simple, pleasant, and rustic aspects of countryside living.
Word in the Wild
Illustrative story: an imagined scene, not a documented event or interview.
The painting had hung in the corridor of his office for fifteen years before he really looked at it.
A field. A low light. Two figures walking away from the viewer at the edge of the canvas, very small. Nothing was happening except the afternoon.
He stood in front of it for ten minutes, which he had never done with any painting. He couldn't say what had changed. Something about turning fifty, something about the year behind him, something about the specific quality of rest the painting contained — as though the world it showed had made a quiet agreement with itself to ask nothing of anyone, just for this moment.
Questions about this word
What does "Pastoral" mean?
Pastoral is adjective meaning: Of simple, gentle country life — and the art that romanticises it.. Of or relating to the countryside; depicting or idealising rural life; in literature and music, a genre celebrating the simplicity and beauty of the natural world.
Where does the word "Pastoral" come from?
From Latin pastoralis, from pastor 'shepherd'. The pastoral as a literary genre began with Greek and Roman shepherd poetry — Theocritus and Virgil — and has continued ever since.