saturnine

Pronounced: SAT-uhr-nine, adj

Notes: I have run across this word in literature, but I didn’t know the correct meaning

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Yesterday’s word

The word parboil means “to cook partially by boiling”

First usage

This word came into English in the late 1300s

Background / Comments

I find the background of our word very interesting. It originated from the Latin word perbullire (to boil thoroughly – note not partially), which is a combination of per- (thorough) and bullire (to boil). It came into Anglo-Norman as parboillir, with the alternate spelling perboillir. This word originally meant the same as the Latin – to cook thoroughly by boiling, but the par- prefix was confused with “partial” or “partly”, and thus the meaning changed to – to cook partially by boiling.