Bucolic

WORD: bucolic \byoo-KOL-ik\, adjective

MEANING:
1. Relating to or typical of the countryside or its people; rustic.
2. Of or pertaining to the life and occupation of a shepherd; pastoral.
3. A pastoral poem, depicting rural affairs, and the life, manners, and occupation of shepherds.
4. A country person.

USAGE:

What Ms. Morris appreciates most now is the mix of bucolic and urban: She can descend into the subway and roam the city, then spend hours in the botanic garden and "walk quietly home to check my tomato plants."-- Janny Scott, "The Brownstone Storytellers", New York Times, May 15, 1995

In 1901 the Pittsburgh Leader focused on the more bucolic qualities of Springdale, noting "considerable acreage of woods and farm land, picturesque streets . . . and pretty little frame dwellings set amidst overhanging apple trees and maples."-- Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature

St. Paul's was a private Episcopal boys' school outside of Concord, New Hampshire, sixty miles from Windsor, in the middle of a wooded, secluded, bucolic nowhere.-- Ken Gormley, Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation

Bucolic derives from Greek boukolikos, "rustic; pastoral," from boukolos, "a cowherd; a herdsman" from bous, "a cow; an ox."

idee fixe

WORD: idee fixe \ee-day-FEEKS\, noun

MEANING: An idea that dominates the mind; a fixed idea; an obsession.

USAGE:
The reality of obsession -- its incessant return to the same few themes, scenarios and questions; its meticulous examination and re-examination of banal minutiae for hidden meanings that simply aren't there; the cancerous way an idee fixe usurps other, more interesting thoughts -- is that it is confining, not rebellious, and not fascinating but maddeningly dull.-- Laura Miller, "The Streetwalkers of San Francisco", New York Times, August 20, 2000

It became an idee fixe that he stubbornly adhered to in spite of the plain evidence . . . that obviously contradicts it.-- Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Prosody or pharyngealization in old Chinese?", The Journal of the American Oriental Society, January 12, 1996

Getting back to the idee fixe, let me say that it's what produces strong men and madmen.-- Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (translated by Gregory Rabassa)

Idee fixe is from the French idée, "idea" + fixe, "fixed."

Genial

WORD: genial \JEEN-yuhl; JEE-nee-uhl\, adjective
MEANING:
1.[Obsolete] Pertaining to generation or marriage.2. Friendly, warm; kindly; sympathetically cheerful and cheering.3. Mild, pleasant; comfortable; favorable to life or growth.
USAGE:
The day before the operation, despite his paralysis, he had been his usual genial self, laughing and joking.-- Ruth Brandon

Though the tattoo is rather forbidding, belying Giambi's genial nature, his teammates are all in favor of it.-- "Body Art Inspires Giambi in Art of Hitting"

With its soothing pace and genial feel, Donegal . . . always has served as a convenient respite and outdoor playground for the Republic and much of Europe.-- "Tourists look past 'troubles'"

She, like he, like all beings in this happy valley with its genial clime, goes always naked, stark staring, as someone's said, wearing nothing daylong but the shells and beads braided into her black hair.-- Robert Coover

Genial comes from Latin genialis, "relating to enjoyment; joyful," from genius, "guardian spirit; spirit of enjoyment."

Missive

WORD: missive \MIS-iv\, noun

MEANING: A written message; a letter.

USAGE:

She also agreed to write to the Prince, while the Count included a suitably outraged missive of his own.
-- Saul David

Well, somebody sent the invitation, I said, getting back to the mysterious missive.
-- Jane Heller

Missive comes from the Medieval French lettre missive, literally, letter intended to be sent; it ultimately derives from Latin missus, past participle of mittere, to send.