Pronounced: vuh-DEHT (alternatively, vih-DEHT), noun
Notes: Another interesting history
Yesterday’s word
The word saturnine means “sluggish or gloomy; slow or listless as though suffering from lead poisoning”
First usage
Our word came into English in the early to mid-1400s
Background / Comments
Our word came into English from the Latin word sāturnīnus (Saturn-like). This is not the planet Saturn, which is named for the Roman Titan god Saturn… but our word is not named for the Roman god either. Our word is based the meaning of saturn in alchemy – the metal lead. I thought that this word was used to describe a man who looked like Satan. I think this comes from reading where a man deliberately dressed to look Satan-like (Mephistophelean), and was also described as “saturnine”.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 