It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11th.
Today's word is saturnine, spelled S-A-T-U-R-N-I-N-E.
Saturnine is an adjective.
It's a literary word that typically describes people who are glum and grumpy, or things that suggest or express gloom.
It can also mean slow to act or change.
Here's the word used in a sentence from The Independent.
"If he was once more cautious in interviews, coming across as a little saturnine, he's looser now,
illuminated by flashes of wry humor." Saturnine is far, even astronomically far, from the cheeriest of words.
It has a long history of describing the glum and grouchy among us,
and comes ultimately from Saturnus, name of the Roman god of agriculture,
who was often depicted as a bent old man with a stern, sluggish, and sullen nature.
Saturn, the ringed gas giant that is one of five planets visible to the naked eye,
is of course the namesake of Saturnus, and Saturn does indeed seem to dawdle.
It requires over 29 of our Earth years to orbit the Sun.
The ancient Romans, like some astrologers today, believed those who are born when Saturn
is rising in the sky may tend toward being a gloomy Gus, or Debbie Downer.
We don't know A.
A. Milne's take on the influence of Saturn, but his gloomy, cynical, gray donkey, Eeyore, is famously saturnine,
a fact Eeyore himself would surely stoically accept as true if it were pointed out to him.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.