Dictionary entry

Eclogue

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Ec″logue (?), n. [L. ecloga, Gr. � a selection, choice extracts, fr. � to pick out, choose out; � out + � to gather, choose: cf. F. égloque, écloque. See Ex-, and Legend.] A pastoral poem, in which shepherds are introduced conversing with each other; a bucolic; an idyl; as, the Ecloques of Virgil, from which the modern usage of the word has been established.