Saturnalia

See also: saturnalia

Translingual

Etymology

From Latin Sāturnālia, interpreted as the Latin equivalent of Portuguese Carnaval (“Carnival, the period before Lent”); so called because the genus was discovered in Brazil during Carnival.

Proper noun

†Saturnalia f

1. A taxonomic genus within the order Saurischia – a dinosaur from the Triassic period.

Hypernyms

• (family): Eukaryota – superkingdom; Animalia – kingdom; Bilateria – subkingdom; Deuterostomia – infrakingdom; Chordata – phylum; Vertebrata – subphylum; Gnathostomata – infraphylum; Tetrapoda – superclass; Reptilia – class; Eureptilia, Romeriida – clades; Diapsida – subclass; Archosauromorpha – infraclass; Archosauria – division; Ornithodira – subsection; Dinosauria – superorder; Saurischia – order

Hyponyms

• (genus): Saturnalia tupiniquim – sole species

References

• Saturnalia (dinosaur) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Saturnalia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• “Saturnalia”, in Paleobiology Database, 2026

English

Saturnalia (1783) by Antoine-François Callet, showing his interpretation of what the Saturnalia might have looked like

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin Sāturnālia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsætəˈneɪli.ə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌsætɚˈneɪli.ə/, /ˌsætɚˈneɪljə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪliə

Proper noun

Saturnalia or the Saturnalia sg or pl (plural Saturnalias)

1. (historical) An Ancient Roman holiday honoring the deity Saturn.

   Synonyms: (rare) Saturnalians, Saturnals

   • 1913, Thomas Bulfinch, chapter 1, in The Age of Fable:

     Saturn was an ancient Italian deity. It was attempted to identify him with the Grecian god Cronos, and fabled that after his dethronement by Jupiter he fled to Italy, where he reigned during what was called the Golden Age. In memory of his beneficent dominion, the feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the winter season.

   • 1978 December 13, Lorna J. Sass, “Saturnalia: A Feast Fit for a Roman God”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 January 2021:

     CATULLUS described the Saturnalia as “the merriest festival of the year,” and Seneca [the Younger] reported that “all Rome seemed to go mad on this holiday.” The Saturnalia, named for Saturnus, an ancient agricultural deity, began on Dec. 17.

   • 1998 November 11, Baruch E. Kahana, “The Church Co-Opted Some Pagan Concepts”, in The Wall Street Journal‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Dow Jones & Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 June 2024:

     The Church co-opted these and other pagan festivals and concepts: the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of the purification of Isis became the Feast of the Nativity; the Saturnalia were replaced by Christmas celebrations; Mithra (the Persian sun god) was born in a cave, of a virgin, on Dec. 25.

   • 2005 November 27, J. R. Romanko, “Datebook”, in The New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 May 2015:

     Inspired by the Roman Saturnalias, the Philadelphia Mummers New Year’s Day Parade, below, will teem with 15,000 mummers – elaborately costumed members of local New Year’s clubs – competing in four divisions.

   • 2012 September 21, Justine Jordan, “John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk – review”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[4], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 December 2013:

     Its pages contain not just recipes but an idyll of prelapsarian plenty, passed down the generations by those who still connect with pagan forces: Saturnus and his groaning table, a Saturnalia from the Golden Age.

   • 2016 December 21, Associated Press, “Vandals repeatedly attack pentagram erected near Nativity scene”, in New York Post‎^[5], New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 December 2016:

     The sculpture sits about 20 feet from a traditional Nativity scene of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, and is backed by a banner from an atheist group reading “Keep Saturn in Saturnalias,” a reference to the belief that the early Christian church substituted Christmas for a Roman pagan holiday.

   • 2022 October 17, Kathryn Schulz, “What We’ve Lost Playing the Lottery”, in The New Yorker‎^[6], New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 October 2022:

     In many of these early instances, they [lotteries] were deployed either as a kind of party game—during Roman Saturnalias, tickets were distributed free to guests, some of whom won extravagant prizes—or as a means of divining God’s will.

Derived terms

• Satanalia
• saturnalia
• Saturnalian

Translations

holiday to mark the winter solstice

• Dutch: Saturnaliën n pl
• Hebrew: סָטַרְנַלְיָא (satarnálya), סְטַרְנוּרָא (starnúra) (corruption)
• Irish: Féile Satairn f
• Italian: Saturnali m
• Latin: Sāturnālia
• Manx: Feailley Sarn f
• Portuguese: Saturnália f
• Russian: сатурна́лии f pl (saturnálii)

Noun

Saturnalia (plural Saturnalias)

1. Alternative letter-case form of saturnalia.
   • 1890 October, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], “Over the Teacups”, in The Atlantic Monthly‎^[7], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 March 2023:

     It was odd that the literary festival should be turned into a Donnybrook fair, but so it was when I was a boy, and the tents and the shows and the crowds on the Common were to the promiscuous many the essential parts of the great occasion. They had been so for generations, and it was only gradually that the Cambridge Saturnalia were replaced by the decencies and solemnities of the present sober anniversary.

   • 2015 December 25, John Leland, “New Years Eve, Times Square, Through the Years”, in The New York Times‎^[8], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 December 2015:

     For New York Times photographers, it has been a night to leave their families in order to document the Saturnalia of Times Square.

   • 2016 January 13, David Bennun, “Guns N’ Roses’ big-money reunion”, in The Economist‎^[9], London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 October 2020:

     G N’ R, as they are colloquially known, were an affront to the ears and nostrils of civilised society, a Saturnalia in the flesh and in the speakers.

Further reading

• Saturnalia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Australian

Latin

Etymology

From Sāturnus m (“Saturn”) +‎ -ālia.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [saː.tʊrˈnaː.li.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [sa.turˈnaː.li.a]

Proper noun

Sāturnālia n pl (genitive Sāturnālium or Sāturnāliōrum); third declension

1. Saturnalia (a festival of the winter solstice originally celebrated for three days beginning December 17th, but later extended to seven days).
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 2.21:

     his consulibus aedis Saturno dedicata, Saturnalia institutus festus dies

     During their consulship a temple was dedicated to Saturn and the festival of the Saturnalia instituted.

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, pure i-stem), plural only.

	plural
nominative	Sāturnālia
genitive	Sāturnālium Sāturnāliōrum
dative	Sāturnālibus
accusative	Sāturnālia
ablative	Sāturnālibus
vocative	Sāturnālia

Derived terms

• nōn semper Sāturnālia erunt

Descendants

• → English: saturnalia, Saturnalia

References

• “Saturnalia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Saturnalia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “Saturnalia”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.