Word to the Wise: Saturnine

Someone who’s "saturnine" (SAT-ur-nine) is bitter, melancholy, or sullen – the temperament of someone born under the supposed astrological influence of Saturn.

Example (as used by Susan Stewart in The New York Times): "Fans of [Hugh] Laurie’s current series, the medical drama ‘House,’ may have a hard time reconciling his sarcastic and saturnine diagnostician with the goggle-eyed goofballs he’s made a career of playing."

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