English

Noun

ruralism ‎(countable and uncountable, plural ruralisms)

1. Advocacy of rural life instead of urbanism or city living.
   • 1998, Nels Anderson & Raffaele Rauty, “Urbanism as a way of life”, in On hobos and homelessness, ISBN 0226019675, 9780226019673, page 277:

     Ruralism conserves its isolation,...

   • 2001, Mathew Humphrey, chapter 1, in Political theory and the environment: a reassessment, ISBN 0714681873, 9780714681870, page 24:

     ...'By "ruralism" I mean the glorification of country life, and a dissatisfaction with urbanism...

2. Rural living.
   • 1894, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Marcella:

     Here, for the first time, had Marcella been brought face to face with the agricultural world as it is--no stage ruralism, but the bare fact in one of its most pitiful aspects.

   • 1975, Scott Nearing, Civilization and Beyond:

     At the end of the cycle Roman culture was turning its back upon ruralism and moving into a culture that was to be chiefly urban during an entire millennium.

3. The state or quality of being rustic.
   • 1994 April 8, Peter Margasak, “Kahil El'Zabar, Malachi Favors, Billy Bang”, in Chicago Reader:

     The beautifully hypnotic patterns that have become an earmark, of the Ritual Trio are well suited to Bang's varied solo flights; on the album's affecting "Pedro," Bang's rough violin scrapes convey a backwoodsy ruralism, recalling the rootsy fiddle playing of southern prewar black string bands, while the title track with its propulsive near-swing finds him putting out a wild, Ornette-ish sound splash.

   • 2007 September 8, David Hajdu, “Tenor of the Times”, in New York Times:

     He had a robust earthiness that signified authenticity, especially to Americans of the postwar era who prized ruralism and took vernacular artists to be truer, more legitimate, than trained urban professionals.

4. (countable) A rural idiom or expression.

Synonyms

• (advocacy of rural living): agrarianism
• (state or quality of being rural or rustic): rusticity, backwoodsiness; rurality, ruralness, rusticism

Related terms

• ruralist

See also

• ruralism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia