Rustic

How to spell rustic

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rustic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rustic mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a plain, simple character typical of the countryside, often in a charming or deliberately unrefined way.

Rustic in a sentence

• The cottage had a rustic charm, with bare beams and a stone floor.

• They served the meal on rustic wooden boards instead of plates.

Where does rustic come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin rusticus, meaning 'of the countryside' or 'belonging to the land', which was formed from rus, the plain Latin noun for open country or farmland as opposed to the city. In Roman usage rusticus could describe both the honest simplicity of country life and, less kindly, a coarse or unsophisticated person, and both shades of meaning travelled with it. English borrowed the word in the late fifteenth century, partly by way of Old French rustique, to describe people, manners, and buildings that had a plain country character. The same rus root sits inside 'rural', a useful reminder that the spelling has no connection to 'rust' the corrosion, even though the two words look almost identical. Keeping that distinction in mind helps fix the single -t- and the -ic ending rather than the -y you might expect.

How the word is built

• rust- (from Latin rus: countryside)
• -ic (adjective suffix)