pastoral

adj
/ˈpɑːstə.ɹəl/UK/ˈpæs.tə.ɹəl/US

Etymology

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

  1. derived from pāstōrālis
  2. derived from pastoral

Definitions

  1. Of or pertaining to shepherds or herders of other livestock.

    • Like the Mesolithic age of 10,000-8000 B.C., the period 6000-4000 B.C. seems to be one of the fall of fortresses and the rise of pastoral nomadism.
  2. Relating to rural life and scenes, in particular of poetry.

    • We were living a pastoral life.
    • […] these pastoral farms, / Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke / Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
    • There was a tone, too, of pastoral poetry shed over the new scenes to which they were just introduced, that had a greater effect from the contrast to those, artificial and crowded, which they had just left.
  3. Relating to the care of souls, to the pastor of a church or to any local religious leader…

    Relating to the care of souls, to the pastor of a church or to any local religious leader charged with the service of individual parishioners, i.e. a priest or rabbi.

    • pastoral duties
    • a pastoral letter
    • “In terms of pastoral consequences,” Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who leads the Vatican’s office on doctrine, said in a news conference Monday, “the principle of welcoming all is clear in the words of Pope Francis.”
  4. + 4 more definitions
    1. A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds

      A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyll; a bucolic.

      • Ethel was silent from surprise: she had prepared herself for anger—even sorrow; but ridicule left her without an answer. What could she say to a hearer, who only smiled, and to whom emotion was only a scene in a pastoral?
    2. A cantata relating to rural life

      A cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life.

    3. A letter of a pastor to his charge

      A letter of a pastor to his charge; specifically, a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese.

    4. A letter of the House of Bishops, to be read in each parish.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at pastoral. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01pastoral02shepherds03shepherd04grazing05grassland06rural07rustic

A definitional loop anchored at pastoral. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at pastoral

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA