idyll
/ˈɪdɪl
/noun
1An extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque period or situation, typically an idealized or unsustainable one: the rural idyll remains strongly evocative in most industrialized societies...
- It might be associations, such as memories of holidays, pastoral idylls, the peacefulness, the slower pace, or a whole imagined way of life.
- The ‘quality of life index’ suggests the happiest Scots live in the Highlands where the rural idyll of low crime, a strong sense of community and good health remains largely intact.
- Goth, however, was one style that did achieve some form of visibility - although you'll note that I say the late 1980s because, like most things, it took a few years to make its way out to our rural idyll.
Synonyms
perfect time, ideal time, wonderful time, moment of bliss, honeymoon;
paradise, heaven, heaven on earth, Garden of Eden, Shangri-La, fairyland, Utopia
literary Arcadia, Arcady, Erewhon
1.1A short description in verse or prose of a picturesque scene or incident, especially in rustic life.If the first half of the novel is an idyll, the second half shifts to romance....
- Patchett takes her time getting there, but by the climax of her story, you find yourself hoping that the idyll will - somehow, magically - last.
- Clearly the poetry is more than music, idylls and dreams; I would argue that Hyde knows full well that language makes itself part of what it refers to.
Synonyms
pastoral, eclogue, georgic, rural poem
Origin
Late 16th century (in the Latin form): from Latin idyllium, from Greek eidullion, diminutive of eidos 'form, picture'.