Rustic and rusticate

A discussion of word histories and origins.
vaibhavd85
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Rustic and rusticate

Postby vaibhavd85 » Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:45 pm

Rustic (adj):
1) having to do with the life in country.
2) simple and charming in a way seen typical of the countryside.

Contextual example:
Each day the rustic scenes (rural) from his village made him feel nostalgic, finally Mohan decided that he would leave US and go back to Charanpur.

Guess which movie this example might belong to?

This word comes from the Latin root "rusticus" which in turn comes from the root "rus" which means country. In fact the word rural also comes from the same root (rus).

To make this word a tad easy to remember lets consider a familiar word.

Rusticate (V): suspend (a student) from a university as a punishment.

When you rusticate someone, you send him or her to the countryside for some time.

Contextual example:
He was rusticated from the school because he had drawn moustaches on the painting of Anne Besant.

Contextual example:
After he was rusticated from school, he lost interest in education.

Feedback, cognates, discussion are as always welcome.

Regards,
V

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Slava
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Postby Slava » Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:09 pm

I seem to have missed this one in my previous trolling through the old posts. I've never heard of rusticate used in the manner given. It appears to be a strictly British usage. To me it implies the act of taking on rural/rustic manners and learning to live in the countryside, or even outback.

As to the question about what the movie might be, I have no real idea. The only India-based movie I can think of is one I never saw and of which I can't remember the title. I'd know it if I heard it, though.
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Dr. Goodword
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Rustic Pushkin

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:20 pm

The great Russian poet who invented modern Russian, Alexander Pushkin, wrote the only novel I know of in verse--seven chapters in Spenserian sonnets. The novel has a rural setting, so Pushkin gave it the epigraph, "O Rus!" I think he took this expression from Vergil. The Old Russian name of Russia was, of course, Rus. A devilishly ingenious play on words.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Thu Dec 09, 2010 11:50 pm

Ah, this is one of the truly great ones. For those who don't read Russian, I recommend Johnston's translation. Even my Russian friends like it, and for the most part Russians don't like translations.

For humor's sake, here's the start to the review of this book on Amazon.com: "or Yevgeny Onegin yiv-hgye-nye-le-hnye-gyin..." What a lark!
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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