Rusticates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To move to or spend time in the countryside ; to decorate a building's exterior with rough stonework to give a rustic appearance
2. To live away from cities, typically in rural or country areas ; to finish walls or structures using masonry techniques that create a rugged look
3. To withdraw to a rural place for peace or study ; to treat a building's surface to appear rough and natural, imitating traditional rustic stonework

Etymology: Before it meant a country retreat, "rusticate" was a punishment. In English universities, a student sent away for a period of time was said to be rusticated, a sense recorded in Oxford and Cambridge usage, though the source here gives only the Latin base, so the university sense stands on its own without a date from me. The verb comes from Latin "rusticari," meaning to live in the countryside, itself built on "rusticus," rural, from "rus," the field or country. English borrowed it in the mid-17th century, keeping that original sense of withdrawing to the country. The "-ate" ending is the common verb-forming suffix found in many Latin-derived English verbs, and "rustic" supplies the rest of the word. A later meaning comes from architecture, where rusticating a wall means cutting its stone blocks with deep, rough joints to give a plain, country-looking finish. The same root thus produced a verb for a rural retreat, a verb for a disciplinary exile from university, and a verb for textured masonry.

Synonyms: ruralizes, countrifies, retreats, relaxes, withdraws

Antonyms: urbanizes, civilizes, metropolizes, advances, develops