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
Erik Kain, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2024
The business of television during the heady Thatcherite ’80s feels fundamentally at odds with the bucolic Cotswolds setting—an aesthetic clash of giant cellphones and gentle pastures, boardroom meetings and stray sheep.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2024
This striking home in a bucolic Connecticut setting was designed and built in 1981 by the important late architect Charles Gwathmey, the same man behind the renovation and expansion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Guggenheim Museum in 1992.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 1 Oct. 2024
Nicknamed the Loveliest Village on the Plains, Auburn residents aren’t afraid of poking a little fun at their hometown’s bucolic setting.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 27 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for bucolic 
Dictionary Entries Near bucolic
Cite this Entry
“Bucolic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bucolic. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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bucolic
adjective
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