saturnine
/ˈsætərnaɪn/adjective
Gloomy, grave, sluggish, or difficult to cheer
From Latin Saturn (The Roman god Saturn).
Lineage
Saturn
-ine
The story
Picture an astrologer in the Middle Ages studying a birth chart: Saturn, farthest from the Sun in the planetary order then known, crawls through the sky and is imagined as cold, heavy, and slow. A person born under its influence was therefore thought likely to be gloomy and sluggish—saturnine. The word passed through Old French or, according to one account, came into English directly from Medieval Latin Sāturnīnus, “of Saturn.” There is a material twist: alchemists also associated Saturn with lead, and modern French saturnin can mean “plumbic,” or lead-related. So a saturnine mood is, metaphorically, a little like the planet’s old cosmic reputation: cold, heavy, and not in a hurry to brighten.