Related Words

Shepherd: A person who looks after sheep.

Shepherds purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris): Lowers blood pressure, reduces heavy menstrual flow (menorrhagia), reduces the incidence of hemorrhage in childbirth, heals urinary tract irritation and clears blood from the urine, stimulat . . . View Full Definition

His-Genitive: An unusual use of his, her, and their as the sign of the genitive by attaching them to the end of a word or locating them immediately after a word. Algeo notes this became common primarily i . . . View Full Definition

Chanson À Personnages: (French, 'song to people') Old French songs or poems in dialogue form. Common subjects include quarrels between husbands and wives, meetings between a lone knight and a comely shepherdess, o . . . View Full Definition

Thirteener: A stanza rhyming ABABABABCDDDC. The 1994 edition of the E.E.T.S. produced a version of the Wakefield Master's Second Shepherd's Play printed in thirteeners, as opposed to the more traditiona . . . View Full Definition

Complaint: A lament or satiric attack on social evils, such as chaucer's 'complaint to his purse,' the opening of the wakefield master's 'second shepherd's play,' or shakespeare's 'a lover's complaint. . . . View Full Definition

Bellwether: A market bellwether is a security whose changing price is considered a signal that the market is changing direction. It gets its name from the wether, or castrated ram, that walks at the hea . . . View Full Definition

Pastoral: Following theocritus (3rd cent. B.c.), verse about those shepherds and their beloveds who lived the simple vice-free life in arcadia, a mountainous region in the peloponnese of greece. Also . . . View Full Definition

Idyll: Either a pastoral poem about shepherds or an epyllion, a brief epic that depicts a heroic episode. An example of the second is alfred lord tennyson's 'idylls of the king.'

Nativity Scene: Is a scene depicting Jesus’ birth. Usually Joseph and Mary are in a stable with shepherds and magi or wise men with gifts gathered around, angels on the roof and a star above the whole scene . . . View Full Definition