saturnalia
/ˌsætɚˈneɪli.ə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.05 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
An Ancient Roman holiday honoring the deity Saturn.
noun
Alternative letter-case form of saturnalia.
Example Sentences
- "Saturn was an ancient Italian deity. It was attempted to identify him with the Grecian god Cronos, and fabled that after his dethronement by Jupiter he fled to Italy, where he reigned during what was called the Golden Age. In memory of his beneficent dominion, the feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the winter season."
- "CATULLUS described the Saturnalia as “the merriest festival of the year,” and Seneca [the Younger] reported that “all Rome seemed to go mad on this holiday.” The Saturnalia, named for Saturnus, an ancient agricultural deity, began on Dec. 17."
- "The Church co-opted these and other pagan festivals and concepts: the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of the purification of Isis became the Feast of the Nativity; the Saturnalia were replaced by Christmas celebrations; Mithra (the Persian sun god) was born in a cave, of a virgin, on Dec. 25."
- "Inspired by the Roman Saturnalias, the Philadelphia Mummers New Year’s Day Parade, below, will teem with 15,000 mummers – elaborately costumed members of local New Year’s clubs – competing in four divisions."
- "Its pages contain not just recipes but an idyll of prelapsarian plenty, passed down the generations by those who still connect with pagan forces: Saturnus and his groaning table, a Saturnalia from the Golden Age."
- "The sculpture sits about 20 feet from a traditional Nativity scene of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, and is backed by a banner from an atheist group reading “Keep Saturn in Saturnalias,” a reference to the belief that the early Christian church substituted Christmas for a Roman pagan holiday."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin Sāturnālia.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌsætɚˈneɪli.ə/
- British English: /ˌsætəˈneɪli.ə/
Inflected Forms
the Saturnalia (canonical, plural)
Saturnalias (plural)