shepherdism en · NOUN
Etymology
From shepherd + -ism.
Meanings
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(uncountable) Pastoral life or occupation
True, the Hindu writers describe their Apollo, in the full enjoyment of a pastoral scene, worthy the birthplace of the Georgics; but the stern realities of Indian shepherdism form a woeful bathos to all this .
1839, Marianne Young, Cutch: Or, Random Sketches of Western India, page 92:and in summer tide, noles and their ladies loved to rove the woods and fields, and play at gentle shepherdism.
1888, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Tapestry and Embroidery in the South Kensington Museum, page 105:After a few introductory remarks on the most probable state of mankind in an early stage of savageism, shepherdism, pastoral life, agriculture, rude dwellings, towns and cities, Mr. Barker stated that the object of Buckle is to unfold the causes of man's advancement in art, science, and literature – i.e., physical, intellectual, and moral well-being.
1860 October 14, George Jacob Holyoake, “Secularist and Progressionist Societies”, in The Reasoner Gazette, volume 25, number 42, page 167:But with all her admiration and comprehension of the beauties of nature and of a country life, André Léo is free from any attempt at "Arcadian-shepherdism."
1867 August 24, “André Léo”, in The Spectator, volume 40, page 953:
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(uncountable) The keeping and tending of sheep.
Gilnockie is only some eleven miles south-east from Caplefoot, where raiding has been displaced by shepherdism, and where the pipe and viol have superseded the Jeddart axe.
1900, David Lowe, A Scots Wanderjahre, page 204:All his Ground, far and near, was thick covered with his fleecy Wealth: You would have thought by their bleatings that you were in Arcadia, and Shepherdism coming in fashion again
1992, Hubert McDermott ·, Vertue Rewarded, Or, The Irish Princess, page 10:In the wide sheep pastures on the S. E. corner of Scotland, and those of England immediately bordering with it, where all the branches of the business of shepherdism are well understood, and diligently pursued, the active and intelligent occupants of sheep farms have, for some time, been in the custom of drawing small drains through all the moist parts of their pastures, to lead away the superfluous water which arises from springs, or descends from the hills in rains;
1798, John Naismith, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Clydesdale, page 118: