Make Your Point: SATURNINE

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pronounce SATURNINE:

SAT ur nine

connect this word to others:

As we check out the word saturnine, see if you can recall two other words named for a planet:

1. People who often change in an unpredictable way are ______ial.

2. Things that are dark and gloomy, or hellish and demonic, are _____nian.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

Since Saturn is one of the planets you can see without a telescope, it was way back in ancient times when the Romans noticed it and gave it a name. They named it after their god of harvest and agriculture (and, later, time and old age). We've used the word "Saturn" in English both for the god and the planet since the 1200s, maybe even earlier.

Some astrologers way back then believed that if you were born under the planet Saturn, you had a sad, grim, gloomy personality.

So, around the 1400s, the word "saturnine" arose as a description of people who seem sad, grim, and gloomy.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a saturnine character;" "This music is saturnine."

Other forms:

The adverb is "saturninely," as in "She listens saturninely."

And the noun is "saturninity," as in "An Edgar Allan Poe story delivers darkness, madness, and saturninity."

how to use it:

Pick the serious, poetic, moody, semi-common word "saturnine" when you want to call extra attention to how someone or something is cold, dark, grim, gloomy, or brooding.

You might talk about saturnine people, characters, moods, and personalities. Or about saturnine faces, voices, songs, poems, or other things that seem to exude gloom.

examples:

"One morning, about a century ago, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke... was 36, broke, blocked, disconsolate and sickly, a saturnine man contemplating his fears and failures."
— Jim Lewis, New York Times, 25 March 2011

"[Willem Dafoe in The Old Woman] is jagged and saturnine: as he lopes and leers he looks as if he could swallow up the stage."
— Susannah Clapp, The Guardian, 6 July 2013

has this page helped you understand "saturnine"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "saturnine" without saying "brooding" or "grave."

try it out:

A New York Times writer described the stage effects for a fashion show as "dark and saturnine, with the models' hair stringy, like that of drowned mermaids, colors pitching blood red against deep blue."

With that in mind as an example, talk about a show, a movie, or a song that has saturnine effects, or a saturnine sound, atmosphere, or aesthetic. What are some of the details that make it feel so saturnine?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is Make Your Point Before & After!

I'll give you a clue, and you give me a verbal mashup including at least one word or phrase we've studied before.

For example, if I give you "It's the kind of theatrical stage setting that encourages the actors to radically overact," then you give me "mise en scenery chewing," a mashup of "mise en scene" and "scenery chewing."

Try this last one today: It's the long moment of silence that seems to never end when you're waiting for an answer from someone who doesn't want to give one.

To reveal the first two hints, highlight the hidden white text.

Hint 1: The number of words in this Before & After is... one.

Hint 2: The first word in this Before & After is... too big of a hint, but the first letters are TAC.

Hint 3: Use this term.

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of SATURNINE could be

A. SUNNY.
B. EARTHY.
C. MOONING.

2. In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed described Louis Vierne's "_____ organ music" as being "full of _____ harmonies and saturnine sonorities."

A. rich .. dense
B. murky .. sickly
C. angelic .. ethereal

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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