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definitions

pastoral

[pas-ter-uhl, pah-ster-]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR pastoral ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

noun

RELATED WORDS

bucolic, rural, idyllic, agrarian, rustic, simple, country, arcadian, sylvan, provincial, countrified, agrestic, outland

Nearby words

  1. pastitsio,
  2. pastness,
  3. pasto,
  4. pastor,
  5. pastorage,
  6. pastoral counseling,
  7. pastoral epistle,
  8. pastoral epistles,
  9. pastoral letter,
  10. pastoral prayer

Origin of pastoral

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin pāstōrālis, equivalent to pāstōr-, stem of pāstor (see pastor) + -ālis -al1
Related forms
Can be confusedpastoral pastorale
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for pastoral

British Dictionary definitions for pastoral

pastoral

adjective

of, characterized by, or depicting rural life, scenery, etc
(of a literary work) dealing with an idealized form of rural existence in a conventional way
(of land) used for pasture
denoting or relating to the branch of theology dealing with the duties of a clergyman or priest to his congregation
of or relating to a clergyman or priest in charge of a congregation or his duties as such
of or relating to a teacher's responsibility for the personal, as the distinct from the educational, development of pupils
of or relating to shepherds, their work, etc

noun

a literary work or picture portraying rural life, esp the lives of shepherds in an idealizing waySee also eclogue
music a variant of pastorale
Christianity
  1. a letter from a clergyman to the people under his charge
  2. the letter of a bishop to the clergy or people of his diocese
  3. Also called: pastoral staffthe crosier or staff carried by a bishop as a symbol of his pastoral responsibilities
Derived Formspastoralism, nounpastorally, adverb

Word Origin for pastoral

C15: from Latin, from pastor
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for pastoral

pastoral

adj.

"of or pertaining to shepherds," early 15c., from Old French pastoral (13c.), from Latin pastoralis "of herdsmen, of shepherds," from pastor (see pastor (n.)). The noun sense of "poem dealing with country life generally" is from 1580s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Culture definitions for pastoral

pastoral

A work of art that celebrates the cultivated enjoyment of the countryside. The poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” by Christopher Marlowe, is a pastoral. Its first stanza reads:

Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.