Rusticate (pronounced ruhs-ti-keyt)
(1) To go to the country; to stay or sojourn in the country; to banish or retire to the country.
(2) To make rustic, as persons or manners; to make or become rustic in style, behaviour etc.
(3) In architecture, to finish an exterior wall with large blocks of masonry that are separated by deep joints and decorated with a bold, usually textured, design.
(4) Temporarily (as a punishment for a transgression not sufficiently serious to warrand permanent exclusion) to send down a student from a university (historic UK use).
(5) By extension, to sack a politician from office because of misbehavior or scandal (not used in cases of simple ineptitude or incompetence).
1650–1660: From the Latin rūsticātus, past participle of rūsticārī (to live in the country), the construct being rūstic(us) (rustic + -ātus). The ultimate root was rūs (the country) which, like rūsticus was from the Proto-Italic rowestikos. The Classical Latin suffix –ātus (feminine -āta, neuter -ātum) was from the Proto-Italic -ātos, from the primitive Indo-European -ehtos and is listed by scholars as a "pseudo-participle" possibly related to -tus, though similar formations in other Indo-European languages indicate it was distinct from it by Indo-European times. The suffix –ate was used to form adjectives from nouns indicating the possession of a thing or a quality and was one of Latin’s perfect passive participle suffixes of first conjugation verbs (-ātus, -āta & -ātum) which, in Middle English was written -at. Rusticate is a verb, rusticator & rustication are nouns and rusticated & rusticating are adjectives & verbs; the usual noun plural is rusticators.
Frequently rusticated by inclination (and sometimes by circumstances of his own making): Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; Barnaby Joyce (b 1967; thrice (between rustications) deputy prime minister of Australia 2016-2022, left) and Lindsay Lohan, temporarily rusticating in Georgia Rule (2007) (right).
