Friday, February 13, 2009

saturnine
"gloomy, morose, sluggish, grave," 1433, lit. "born under the influence of the planet Saturn," from M.E. Saturne (see Saturn). Medieval physiology believed these characteristics to be caused by the astrological influence of the planet Saturn, which was the most remote from the Sun (in the limited knowledge of the times) and thus coldest and slowest in its revolution.

Thursday, August 23, 1984

Vocab

cavorting
cheek
insuperable
rapacity
arduous
pedantry
leniency
pernicious
satiating
complacency
transmuted
patently
candor
thwarted
rapscallion
adroit
pretense
fatuousness
dandyism
effigy
ineffable
assuaged
mirth
expedient
omniscient
omnipotent
parlance
convalescent
doleful
imp
deride
lamentable
abstruse
strewn
writhe
scrofulous
beguiling
farcical
complacent
solemn
melancholy
precocity
insidious
inept
joviality
careening
stoic
glowered
dullard
didactic
castigated
raison d'ete
oriental
humanity
apology
apathy
realization
attachment
squalor
appreciate
appreciative
seclusion
fulfillment
loneliness
quest
intimidate
mimic
search
assimilate
manifesto
loathing
critizice
adventure
misadventure
miseducation
exploration
learn
education
overcome
adversity
trophy
dependent
pensive
ignorant
suffering
pain
confinement
reliance
follower
seeker
survival
snobbish
intention
intimacy
voyeur
history
progressive
digressive
repetition
chanting
regression
dedication
memory
time
space
immortality
sensitivity
love
hate
depression
atonement
astonishment
symptoms
hallucination
monolithic
annex
distant
morose
battered
strenuously
counting
processing
inspection
valuing
doldrum
exude
miasmic
malleable
intimidated
precocious
taut
scoff
adamant
intolerable
incongruous
disruptive
maniacal
consensual
elastic
trepidatious
seethed
revelers
complicit
tumult
consternation
corrugated
sycophantic
morose
static
heedless
jocularity
drolleries
wince
austerity
pine
yew
maple
dew
graveyard
grave
tombstone
tome
laurel
undulation
arable
hermit
oval
gate
alder
dim
mischief
canopy
dint
cryptic
distraut
scant
croon
intermittent
folly
tartan
inaugural
hearth
massif
exodus
parting
persisting
pauper
copse
compulsion
unconnected
disjoint
pedagogic
albeit
belated
trundled
bustle
enamel
stag
seam
incorrigible
veritable
choleric
impediment
timbre
hitch
assiduity
repellent
thorough
brimful
stoup
endeavor
intermittent
vicars
forbearance
infirmities
piety
ostentatiously
inbred
willfully
shade
pitted
sheer
conduit
derelict
disposition
infallibly
contemplative
instigation
fragmentary
recollection
antecedents
raw
barren
dense
skim
desolation
collocated
modest
soundless
swaying
contemptible
repulsive
preclude
mocking
enamored
contrarieties
intimated
vanish
fame
famish
frail
fail
perfidious
opulent
denomination
aberration
detriment
fractured
shattered
prognosis
misgivings
eclipsed
demise
heather
myrtle
camellia
camphor
dunes
mirror reversals
decorum
pendulous
infallible
mockery
motionless
curious
inconsolable
heaving
deportment
resplendent
marasmus
lugubrious
repast
licentiousness
misgivings
peter
toiled
zeal
necropolis
mausoleum
derelict
macs
rudiments
disdain
incipient
gaol
oubliette
decipherment
prolix
tacit
irremediable
gloom
anesthesia
impairment
civilian casualty
insular
transmigration
bowed
salubrious
immemorial
erstwhile
privations
deformities
excrescences
becalmed
surfeit
deciduous
footsore
undiminished
respite
prudence
temperance
fortitude
reliquary
harbinger
pallid
tribulations
constitution
detritus
loquacity
capitulate
vehemence
inadvertence
saturnine
indisposition
semblance
edifice
striation
chasm
qualmish
disconsolate
informative
jocular
lacuna