Latin

Adjective

rūsticus m ‎(feminine rūstica, neuter rūsticum); first/second declension

1. of the country, rural, rustic
   • 80 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino, XV.42:

     'Nescio' inquit 'quae causa odi fuerit; fuisse odium intellego qui antea, cum duos filios haberet, illum alterum qui mortuus est secum omni tempore volebat esse, hunc in praedia rustica relegarat.'

     'I know not', says he, 'what cause for displeasure there was; but I know that displeasure existed; because formerly, when he had two sons, he chose that other one, who is dead, to be at all times with himself, but sent this other one to his country farms.'

   • 30 BCE, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Satirae, Liber II.6:

     Olim rusticus urbanum murem mus paupere fertur accepisse cavo...

     It is told that once upon a time a country mouse in his poor burrow received a city mouse...

2. (figuratively) unrefined, boorish, coarse
   • 55 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Oratore, Liber III, XI.42:

     ...rustica vox et agrestis quosdam delectat...

     ...a boorish and rude voice delights certain men...

3. (substantive) a farmer, peasant, rustic
   • 42 BCE, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Epistularum ad Familiares, Liber XVI, 21:

     ...rusticus Romanus factus es.

     ...you were made a Roman farmer.

4. (substantive, figuratively) a boor

Inflection

First/second declension.

Synonyms

• agrestis

Antonyms

• urbānus

Derived terms

• rūsticē

Descendants

• Dutch: rustiek
• English: rustic
• French: rustique
• Italian: rustico
• Spanish: rústico

References

• rusticus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• rusticus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “rusticus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • tillage; cultivation: opus rusticum
    
  • (ambiguous) country life (the life of resident farmers, etc.: vita rustica
    
• rusticus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• rusticus in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray