| 释义 |
rural, a. and n.|ˈrʊərəl|
Also 5 rurale, 5–7 rurall, 6 -ell.
[a. F. rural, -ale (14th cent.), or ad. L. rūrāl-is, f. rūr-, rūs country: cf. rustic a.
In early examples there is usually little or no difference between the meanings of rural and rustic, but in later use the tendency is to employ rural when the idea of locality (country scenes, etc.) is prominent, and rustic when there is a suggestion of the more primitive qualities or manners naturally attaching to country life.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of persons: Living in the country; having the standing, qualities, or manners of peasants or country-folk; engaged in country occupations; agricultural or pastoral.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy (E.E.T.S.) 618 Ful likly is þat al þe gentil blood Þoruȝ-out þe world shal distroied be; And rural folke..Shal han lordshipe & holy gouernaunce. 1430–40― Bochas iv. xv. (MS. Bodl. 263), Agothodus of berthe ful rurall Promooted was vnto estat roiall. c1480St. Ursula (Roxb.) A vij, The rurall rebelles aspyed her with her spouse. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 152 A rurall man, rude and of simplicitie. 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. v. (1870) 140 They do dyffer..as well in theyr apparel as in theyr maners, for they be rurall and rusticall. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 233 Heere is a rurall Fellow, That will not be deny'de your Highnesse presence. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 11 Ye Fawns, propitious to the rural Swains,..Join in my Work. 1784Cowper Task i. 281 Not all its pride secures The grand retreat from injuries impress'd By rural carvers. 1837Lockhart Scott I. ii. 76 It was a system which bound together the various classes of the rural population in bonds of mutual love and confidence. 1876M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. II. 16 Perhaps to keep company—odious phrase—with some rural swain.
absol.1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xix. (1632) 931 Hee lulled the rural to thinke that his like had neuer raigned in England.
b. Presiding over, haunting, the country. rare—1.
1582Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 71 Thee sweete Nymphs rural I woorshipt.
c. Applied to a moth (see quot.).
1832J. Rennie Butterfl. & M. 53 The Rural Dart..appears in August... Huntingdonshire and Kent.
2. a. rural dean, rural deanery: (see dean1 5).
c1450Holland Howlat 809 The dene rurale, the Ravyn, reprovit him than. 1534Const. Provinc. 2, 3 deanes rurall. c1628in Foley Rec. Eng. Prov. S.J. I. i. 137 Vicaires Generalls,..deanes, archdeacons, rurall deanes. 1642Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 91 The rurall Deanery. 1697–1765 [see dean1 5]. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset xlvii, Such a preliminary inquiry..need not be done by the rural dean at all. Ibid., You will select two [clergymen] yourself out of your rural deanery.
b. Employed or stationed in country districts.
1840Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Bagman's Dog, It's your uncle, or one of the ‘Rural Policemen’. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 142 There were no rural messengers in those days.
3. a. Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, peasants or country-folk; rustic.
1513Douglas æneis i. Prol. 316 And ȝit persaif I wele, be my consait, The king of poetis ganis nocht for rurale estait. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 100 The inhabitants [of Jutland] keeping their enemies out, long preserved a rude or rurall liberty. 1634Milton Comus 952 All the Swains that there abide, With Jiggs, and rural dance resort. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 398, I see the rural virtues leave the land. 1784Cowper Task iv. 557 Scenes rarely grac'd with rural manners now! 1874Geo. Eliot Coll. Breakf. P. 368 In a sleek and rural apathy.
†b. = rustic a. 1 c. Obs.—1
1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 99 The state of christendom was troublesome..for the late sedition and rurall warre, and for disobedience within the Empyre.
4. a. Of poetry, music, etc.: Natural or appropriate to the country or to country-people; unpolished, plain, simple.
c1470Henry Wallace xi. 1431 All worthi men at redys this rurall dyt, Blaym nocht the buk. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 6335 All gentyll Redaris hertlye I Implore For tyll excuse my rurall rude Indyte. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Jan. 64 Shee deignes not my good will, but doth reprove, And of my rurall musicke holdeth scorne. 1634Milton Comus 547, I..began..To meditate my rural minstrelsie. 1738Gentl. Mag. VIII. 152/1 The Stile [of Comus], as it is rural, is more simple and plain than that of his Paradise Lost.
b. Similarly of musical instruments.
1610Willet Daniel 96 It was a kind of rurall harpe [sackbut]. 1717Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Pope 1 Apr., I have often seen them..playing on a rural instrument, perfectly answering the description of the ancient fistula, being composed of unequal reeds. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xiii, They were amusing themselves by playing upon these rural instruments.
5. a. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the country or country life as opposed to the town.
1590Spenser F.Q. iii. vi. 15 In the countrey she abroad him sought, And in the rurall cottages inquired. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 449 If euer henceforth, thou These rurall Latches to his entrance open. 1638R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 129, I see..that our rural pleasures are not worthy so much as to amuse so great a spirit. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 451 Each rural sight, each rural sound. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Ep. i. xvii. 12 By my advice retreat To the calm raptures of a rural seat. 1784Cowper Task iii. 625 So manifold,..All healthful, are th' employs of rural life. 1810Sporting Mag. XXXVI. 167 Innocent country amusements called Rural Sports. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. II. 32 Where a rural lane strikes off from the Appian Way towards the Grotto of Egeria. 1884Standard 29 Feb. 2/4 The smaller tradesmen scattered throughout our rural towns.
b. Of occupations, labour, etc.
1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 11 They wrought..in all manner of rurall workes. 1667Milton P.L. v. 211 On to thir mornings rural work they haste Among sweet dewes and flours. 1725Pope Odyss. xiv. 28 Of four assistants who his labour share, Three now were absent on the rural care. 1835Thirlwall Greece I. 405 To force a part of the population to quit the capital, and seek subsistence in rural occupations. 1875Ruskin Fors Clav. lviii, They can work..better than their labourers at all rural labour.
transf.1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 87 How they are treated..belongs rather to the rural œconomist, than the natural historian.
c. Of a rustic form or make. rare.
1624Wotton Architecture in Reliq. (1672) 23 The Tuscan is a plain, massie, rural Pillar, resembling some sturdy well-limb'd Labourer, homely clad. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2004/2 Rural Lock, a cheap kind of lock with a wooden case. 1885R. Buchanan Annan Water xi, She came to the rural bridge above Annan Water.
6. Special collocations, as rural district council, the local council of a rural district (see district n. 3 b); abbrev. R.D.C.; rural free delivery (U.S.), the free delivery of mail to a rural area with limited local postal services; rural industry, an industry or manufacture carried out in the country; (Women's) Rural Institute (Sc.), a Women's Institute (see quot. 1958); rural municipality (Canad.), an administrative division of a province; rural route (N. Amer.), a rural mail-delivery route; rural science, the study of rural concerns, esp. agriculture; rural slum, a country dwelling in disrepair; rural–urban adj., designating comparison or interchange between country and town; rural urbanization, the investment of the country with an urban character.
1894,1895Rural district council [see district-council s.v. district n. 6]. 1929[see council-house 2]. 1974Times 1 Apr. 14/1 In all, 422 authorities take over the functions of the 1,385 existing authorities—counties, boroughs, urban and rural district councils.
1893M. H. Cushing Story of our Post Office 1006 A very important effect of the rural free delivery has been to increase the pay of postmasters where it has been tried. 1900Congress. Rec. 16 Jan. 873/1 The rural free delivery service has come to stay. 1930J. M. Stahl Growing with West viii. 109, I talked upon rural free delivery to many thousands. 1944N.Y. Times 19 Oct. 23/2 Mr. Stahl first proposed the establishment of the rural free delivery service in 1879.
1892Pall Mall Gaz. 23 June 2/1 There is little hope of the general establishment of rural industries as long as the Post Office treats country districts with such scant consideration. 1949‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar xxiv. 219 Mrs Stack,..being interested solely in rural industries, represented a Fixed Point in the flux of an agricultural show. 1958Listener 6 Nov. 746/3 Are the efforts of the Rural Industries Organization being bent in the right direction? 1973Country Life 28 June 1904/2 Twenty-seven small rural industries serving agriculture will be represented.
1922Scottish Women's Rural Institutes Handbk. 1921 24 The Badge of the Scottish Women's Rural Institutes may be obtained from..London. 1932‘O. Douglas’ Priorsford xxvii. 242 ‘Have you heard how many teams are going in for the Festival?’.. ‘Seven. Three of them Rural Institutes.’ ‘The Rurals are very good as a rule.’ 1958Everyman's Encycl. XII. 637/1 In Scotland there is a similar [to the Women's Institutes] but quite independent organisation, and the title ‘Rural Institutes’ is used.
1861Nor' Wester (Red River Settlement, Canada) 15 Aug. 1/4 Such was the state of things in Canada until 1847, when the Canadian Legislature passed an act (4 & 3 Vic. cap 10) to extend the municipal system to districts (now counties) and other rural municipalities. 1904Univ. Toronto Stud. Hist. & Econ. II. 140 The council of a rural municipality is made up of a reeve and not less than four nor more than six councillors, the number being fixed by by-law. 1945G. W. Brown Canad. Democracy in Action (1947) vii. 84 One of the reasons for the apparent confusion is that rural municipalities go by different names in different provinces. 1964Naicam (Sask.) Sentinel 26 Mar. 2/3 A meeting of the council of the Rural Municipality of Pleasantdale No. 398 was held in the R.M. office Wednesday.
1898Ann. Rep. (U.S. Post Office Dept.) 163 Nine rural routes were carefully laid out by special agents of the free delivery service. 1956Chatham (Ont.) Daily News 14 June 2/6 Entrants will be accepted from Thamesville and surrounding rural routes. 1965Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Oct. 7/1 George Harris Hees of Bay Street, Toronto, St. James Street, Montreal, and, within the last month, of Rural Route 5, Cobourg.
1914Rural science [see housecraft]. 1939Nature 18 Feb. 305 (heading) Training teachers of rural science. 1976Daily Times (Lagos) 24 May 13/3 In order to promote sufficent interest in the tillage of the land subjects like nature study and rural science should be made compulsory in all primary schools.
1958P. Pollack Picture Hist. Photogr. iii. 350/2 The somber, seamy existence endured by Americans living in rural slums. 1972L. Lamb Picture Frame i. 13 Why..should an extremely sophisticated exponent of abstract expressionism decide to set up his easel in..this rural slum? 1975Times 10 Sept. 18/3 The site enveloped a rural slum community.
1957R. K. Merton Soc. Theory & Soc. Structure (1962) xviii. 592 Differences in rural–urban distribution of the two religions..may be seen. 1970B. Roberts in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. x. 346 The career experiences of low-income families, such as rural–urban and intra-urban migration. 1974tr. Wertheim's Evolution & Revolution 198 Intensified rural–urban relationships might equally increase the revolutionary potential while..facilitating communication lines for revolutionaries.
1970J. Cotler in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. xii. 436 As a result of the confluence of urban ruralization and of rural urbanization, there has been a change in the patterns of social stratification of Mancha India.
B. n.
1. a. An inhabitant of the country; a countryman, rustic. Now rare.
a1513Fabyan Chron. vii. (1811) 497 Sir Thomas punysshed the sayd vyllages and rurallis by greuous fynes. a1575tr. Pol. Vergil's Eng. Hist. (Camden No. 36) 41 The ruralls and common people bie the entercourse..are made verie civill. 1602J. Davies (Heref.) Mirum in Modum ccxlii, The Cittizens the outward Sences bee, The Ruralls be the Bodies rare. 1657G. Thornley Daphnis & Chloe 47 Every rural began to be busie in the fields. 1831John Bull Aug. 250 This delightful place continues the resort of the élite of the town; nor are the ‘rurals’ less liberal in their patronage.
b. A rural policeman.
1860Illustr. Lond. News 26 May 506/2 Sir Richard Mayne's picked A's, and the ever-meddling Surrey ‘rurals’.
†2. pl. = georgic B. 2 b. Obs.
1589A. Fleming Virg. Georg. 3 First beginning with his Bucoliks or Pastoralls,..then his Georgiks or ruralls went in hand, as he fell in loue with good husbandrie.
3. ellipt. for: (a) (Women's) Rural Institute; (b) Rural District Council (rare); see A 6 above.
1932[see (Women's) Rural Institute, sense A. 6 above]. 1940‘O. Douglas’ House that is our Own viii. 82 ‘She takes to do wi' the Nursing and the Rural.’ ‘The Rural?’ ‘Aye, ye ken, Women's Rural Institute.’ 1952M. Laski Village iv. 71 The new Housing Estate..the Walbridge Rural is going to put down at the bottom of Archery Lane. 1967I. Tain Cherrycake Death ii. 15 The Rurals were generally held to fulfil a need in the district. 1973A. MacVicar Painted Doll Affair. x. 113 Jessie's out at a Women's Rural and Moira's at night school. |