idyll

American  

[ahyd-l] / ˈaɪd l /

Or idyl

noun

1. a delightful, tranquil rural scene or episode, reminiscent of or suitable for pastoral art or literature.

   A great many horror movies are set in a suburban idyll.

2. a short descriptive or narrative poem or prose work, depicting a pleasant, tranquil, idealized pastoral scene or event, or any charmingly simple episode in literature.

3. A long narrative poem on a major theme, but less elevated and formal in subject matter, language, and tone than an epic.

   Tennyson's Idylls of the King is an elegaic retelling of Arthurian legend.

4. a brief or inconsequential romantic affair.

5. Music. a composition, usually instrumental, of a pastoral or sentimental character.

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idyll British  

/ ˈɪdɪl /

noun

1. a poem or prose work describing an idealized rural life, pastoral scenes, etc

2. any simple narrative or descriptive piece in poetry or prose

3. a charming or picturesque scene or event

4. a piece of music with a calm or pastoral character

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Etymology

Origin of idyll

First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin īdyllium from Greek eidýllion “short pastoral poem,” equivalent to eíd(os) “form” + -yllion diminutive suffix

Explanation

An idyll is a short period in which everything is wonderful. You could say a cruise you took with your family was an idyll in an otherwise difficult year. In its more formal sense, idyll describes a pastoral interlude or a poem set in nature — an idealized, or idyllic, version of nature where you are drinking champagne under the apple trees, and no one has stepped in cow manure or walked through poison ivy.

Example Sentences

Reality impinges on the Idyll at every turn, which is, in fact, part of what many of its inhabitants like about it.

From Slate • May 4, 2015

Curious neighbors stepping onto their porches were left to contemplate a particularly incongruous moment for the Baltimore Idyll.

From Slate • May 4, 2015

A version of this review appears in print on April 4, 2014, on page C8 of the with the headline: An Island Idyll Turns Sinister .

From New York Times • Apr. 3, 2014

Idyll turned swiftly to inferno as the Industrial Revolution's "dark Satanic mills" burst from the ground, before those same mills forged the last of five giant rings that interlocked and were carried aloft by balloons.

From Reuters • Jul. 28, 2012

Being for the most part an Idyll of England and Summer.

From How to be Happy Though Married Being a Handbook to Marriage by Hardy, Edward John

Related Words

• breathing space
• lull
• respite