pastorale means A play or a musical product which has a pastoral subject. It carries an Arena rating of 1529, earned across 35 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pastorale ranks #242 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #5,508 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #6,660 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #7,287 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
Why “pastorale” is a great word
A musical composition, play, or artwork that evokes or depicts rustic life, especially that of shepherds. Its lineage flows from the Italian *pastorale* (from the adjective *pastorale*, meaning 'pastoral') and the Latin *pastoralis* ('of herdsmen'), born of *pastor* ('shepherd'); it was first attested in English around 1724 to name a musical composition. Unlike “pastoral” (which broadly describes any idyllic rural quality) or “idyll” (which suggests a generalized scene of peace), a pastorale is a deliberate, formal artifact built to carry that rustic theme. It is the sound of a shepherd’s pipe woven into an orchestral adagio, the staged simplicity of actors pretending to tend symbolic flocks in a grove, and the painted light falling just so on a distant, tranquil valley—a crafted memory of a simplicity forever out of reach.
Etymology
From French, from Middle French pastorale; or from Italian pastorale, hence the plural pastorali.
noun
- A play or a musical product which has a pastoral subject.
- An artwork that is suggestive of pastoral themes.e.g.“She was in the country, painting her first pastorale.”
- One of the figures of a quadrille.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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