The gradual overpopulation of the busy urban areas in the last few decades has made many of us yearn for the serenity of the countryside.
And there is the hipster subculture to illustrate that conscious effort of young people toward wilderness as a rebellion against the pre-manufactured and pre-packed life in the city.
Many millennials prefer to spend their weekends planting heirloom tomatoes and brewing their own beer in the country. And there is, indeed, something highly instagramable about artisan crafts and rustic aesthetic.
The word rustic in English is a borrowing from Latin and derives from the root rus (country, open land) to mean ‘of the country, rural, unrefined, rough, simple, lacking sophistication.’
The term was introduced circa 15 century in the Middle English translation of the Latin treatise on farming De Re Rustica, also known as The Work of Farming (Opus Agriculturae), by the ancient author Palladius Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus: “Of time is wax and honey made sweetest..and after them is best of rosemary and sauery; thenne is not so good as they but rustic sweet ….”
The meaning of the word to actually refer to a person living in the countryside, along with the depreciative one of naming appearance or manners of a country person (lacking education and refinement), further developed in the next century.
And in parallel, the adjective rustical – to carry the same meaning as rustic – entered the English vocabulary, to be first recorded in John Trevisa’s translation of the Ranulf Higden’s Polychronicon:
“He taught rude people to edify…wherefore he was trusted to have been a God of the rustical people.”
The transition of the term to denote the positive meaning of the charm of pureness and simplicity, is best described in the 1850s, by the art and social critic John Ruskin in his Modern Painters: “Another use of words may be forced upon us by a new aspect of facts, so that we may find ourselves saying: ‘Such and such a person is very gentle and kind—he is quite rustic’.”
Lately, there has been a rustic trend in the interior design, where homeowners try to create an interior of comfort and warmth that resembles the simplicity and beauty of the outside world, and anything that looks and feels cozy, homespun, distressed and re-purposed is in.
And the same goes for food styling and the usage of the good old Mason jar for serving food and drinks, to match the organic movement as an emphasis on the unrefined, whole, raw ingredients for the joy of urban citizens.
