Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to an arcade.
  • adjective Furnished with arcades.
  • adjective Ideally rustic or pastoral.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From arcade + -ian

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word arcadian.

Examples

  • He turned his bathroom—that most intimate space—into an arcadian idyll.

    Picasso Is Lord of This Manor Michael FitzGerald 2011

  • Some city foodies surely dream of the day that they, too, can leave civilization behind and, like their favorite heirloom-tomato supplier or the guy whose ramps you simply must try, live the arcadian life.

    The Dismaying Facts of a Farmer's Market Pia Catton 2011

  • And often she found herself dreaming of the arcadian days of her people, when they had not lived in cities nor been vexed with labor unions and employers 'associations.

    CHAPTER VIII 2010

  • Most people, however, will enjoy no such arcadian privilege.

    Turned Out Nice: How the British Isles Will Change as the World Heats Up by Marek Kohn 2010

  • His most arcadian sporting scene, "Swimming" (1884-85), depicted nude students and the artist himself in a composition that echoed the triangular format of ancient pediments.

    He Painted the Body Athletic 2010

  • Birds are tweeting, trees whimsically trembling, tea is poured in china cups, the arcadian view falls away from the lovingly tended garden for dreamy miles and miles, and even the steel fence seems part of the scenery, a glistening border curling proudly through the glades.

    Emily Eavis introduces the myth and method of Glastonbury festival 2010

  • There is a scene in the movie where my godless girl bathes in an arcadian pond in the nude.

    Empire of Dreams Scott Eyman 2010

  • The arcadian appearance of the cottages, covered with the blooming myrtle, whose tender green leaves expanded over the white walls of the rural little dwellings, had a most romantic appearance.

    The Curate and His Daughter, a Cornish Tale 2008

  • The clear unruffled bosom of the water, which softly glided at the foot of the alpine hills, was environed with pastoral and arcadian landscapes, which softening the wildness of the steep mountains, conspired to render this spot as inviting as it was lovely.

    The Curate and His Daughter, a Cornish Tale 2008

  • And it's got everything: dancing skyscrapers; gravity-defying pianos in non-Euclidian spaces; abstracted, disembodied, and dematerialized nubile bodies; ornamental, self-organizing crowds; Depression-era urbanism; hotels and arcadian watering holes teeming with pre-Code connubial bliss; Renaissance perspectives on acid; phantasmagorical stage sets; and a bitchless Bette Davis.

    Landscape Architecture: The Musical 2006

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Sounds like the letters R K D N.

    May 17, 2008