pastoral

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a musical composition that evokes rural life
noun a letter from a pastor to the congregation
noun a literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds)

From Middle French, Old French pastoral, from Latin pāstōrālis, from pāstor (“shepherd”), + adjective suffix -ālis.

Thomas Purney's Discourse on the Pastoral (1717). — The Lovers Assistant; Or, New Art of Love, Henry Fielding
FOOTNOTES: [500] See Shenstone's Pastoral Ballad, Part ii., Hope. — The Journal of Sir Walter Scott: From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford, Walter Scott
The word pastoral comes from the Latin pastor, shepherd. — Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools: Edited With Notes, Study Helps, And Reading Lists, Unknown

pastorale, idyll, idyl

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