Idyllic- Daily Word №14
I’m not going to talk about it…
Today’s word is another one of my favourites: idyllic! Since I’m going to talk about this word I might as well include its noun form idyll. Both words describe extreme calmness and a Eden-like environment. Basically a paradise.
Looking Deeper
idyll comes from the Latin word idyllium, which, as you probably know by now, also has another form in Ancient Greek — εἰδύλλιον (eidúllion). This word means ‘form’ or ‘shape’.
Purely cosmetic, idyllic and idyll are almost always replaced by the word ‘utopia’, which actually has quite a different meaning from its original intention. utopia by definition means ‘no place’, a place too perfect to exist, while idyll is within more comprehendible boundaries.
Using ‘idyllic’ and ‘idyll’ in Conversation
Unlike some others I’ve covered, idyllic is acutally more approachable than most other archaic words. Use it to replace serene, beautiful, utopian(depending on what you want to mean). All work.
This landscape is idyllic!
