Wiktionary:Word of the day/September 27

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saturnine adj

(comparable) Of a person: having a tendency to be cold, bitter, gloomy, sarcastic, and slow to change and react. (comparable) Of a setting: depressing, dull, gloomy. (comparable, chemistry, archaic) Of, pertaining to, or containing lead (which was symbolically associated with the planet Saturn by alchemists). (not comparable, pathology) Of a disease: caused by lead poisoning (saturnism); of a person: affected by lead poisoning. (not comparable, astrology, obsolete) Pertaining to the astrological influence of the planet Saturn; having the characteristics of a person under such influence (see sense 1). To mark the premiere of English composer Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets on 29 September 1918, we are featuring a series of words relating to the planets in the Solar System. One of the suite’s movements is Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age, which was composed in 1915.

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