rustication

American  

[ruhs-ti-key-shuhn] / ˌrʌs tɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. Also called rustic work.  Architecture. any of various forms of ashlar so dressed and tooled that the visible faces are raised above or otherwise contrasted with the horizontal and usually the vertical joints.

2. the act of a person or thing that rusticates.

---

Etymology

Origin of rustication

First recorded in 1615–25, rustication is from the Latin word rūsticātiōn- (stem of rūsticātiō ). See rusticate, -ion

Explanation

When you pack up your city apartment and move to the country, you can call it rustication — it's a term that can have positive or negative associations, depending on how excited you are about living in the boonies. The noun rustication is good for what your grandfather did when he retired to a rural town to become a gentleman farmer. You can also describe your grudging attendance at a summer camp deep in the Maine woods as your own rustication. Whether by choice or banishment, rustication is a move to the countryside. The Latin root is rusticus, "open land or country."

Example Sentences

He’s expected — and expects himself — to use his rustication as a chance to recharge, and then to step right back onto the relentless escalator of his career.

From New York Times • Jun. 28, 2022

It is there as rustication and entablature — there, too, on one of the city’s main churches, Santo Domingo de Guzmán.

From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2021

Although the rustication movement is well suited to China's goals, it has caused a number of acute problems.

From Time Magazine Archive

Some will come back to pay a brief parting call�Magnus Johnson, for example; Senators Ball, Dial, Stanley, Walsh of Massachusetts, McCormick, before a forced retirement to rustication on their farms and by their native fireside.

From Time Magazine Archive

One thing, he said, was evident: he was not cut out for the church, and he would not go back to college when the term of his rustication was at an end.

From Eli's Children The Chronicles of an Unhappy Family by Fenn, George Manville