saturnine
Americanadjective
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sluggish in temperament; gloomy; taciturn.
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suffering from lead poisoning, as a person.
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due to absorption of lead, as bodily disorders.
adjective
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having a gloomy temperament; taciturn
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archaic
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of or relating to lead
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having or symptomatic of lead poisoning
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of saturnine
1400–50; late Middle English < Medieval Latin sāturnīnus ( see Saturn, -ine 1)
Explanation
Medieval alchemists ascribed to the planet Saturn a gloomy and slow character. When people are called saturnine, it means they are like the planet — gloomy, mean, scowling. Not exactly the life of the party. Saturnine is a word you don't hear often nowadays, though you probably know people with saturnine dispositions. The ultimate saturnine character in literature is Heathcliff — and for clarification's sake, that would be the bitter, brooding, obsessive hero of Wuthering Heights, not the lovably pudgy cat of comic-strip fame.
Vocabulary lists containing saturnine
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Did You Planet? Words With Surprisingly Spacey Origins
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“For all his Saturnine and Martial defense of psyche in our scientifically defined cosmos,” Mr. Rylance wrote in a statement, “he is the most jovial person to sit with.”
From New York Times • Oct. 28, 2011
At the town of Rio Verde they found belligerent bands of agrarian soldiers, members of the private army of San Luis Potos�'s General Saturnine Cedillo.
From Time Magazine Archive
General Saturnine Cedillo, boss of San Luis Potosi, appointed another Mayor, but the townspeople resented the dictation, called for a regular election.
From Time Magazine Archive
Saturnine, bespectacled Gotfred Hoelvold sits smugly on Kirkenes.
From Time Magazine Archive
They are gloomy, morbid, and Saturnine in character.
From Palmistry for All by Cheiro
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
