saturnine
Meanings
- Of a person: having a tendency to be cold and gloomy
- Of a setting: depressing, dull, gloomy.
- Synonym of leaden, of or related to the metal lead, associated with the planet Saturn in European alchemy.
- Caused or affected by lead poisoning (saturnism).
- Pertaining to the astrological influence of the planet Saturn; having the characteristics of a person under such influence (see sense 1).
- Belonging to or resembling butterflies of the family Saturnidae
- Of or relating to the ancient Roman god Saturn.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English saturnine, satournine, satournyne, saturnin, saturnyn, saturnyne (“pertaining to or under the influence of the planet Saturn; line on the palm of the hand associated with Saturn”), from Old French saturnine, saturnin (modern French saturnin (“of, pertaining to, resembling or containing lead, plumbic”)), or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin Sāturnīnus, from Sāturnus (“the Roman god Saturn; the planet Saturn”) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’); analysable as Saturn + -ine. The English word is cognate with Italian saturnino (“saturnine”), Portuguese saturnino (“melancholy, saturnine; pertaining to the planet Saturn”), Spanish saturnino (“melancholy, saturnine; pertaining to the planet Saturn”). Sense 1 (“having a tendency to be cold, bitter, gloomy, etc.”) refers to the fact that individuals born under the astrological influence of the planet Saturn were believed to have that disposition.