Set 5 HONORS
Even More Words From Myth!
saturnine
• adj
• of a gloomy or surly disposition
• A baseball was thrown onto my neighbor’s lawn,
and a saturnine old man yelled at me to get off his
property when I went to retrieve it.
• Saturnine comes from Saturn, in Medieval times
believed to be the most remote planet from the Sun
and thus coldest and slowest in its revolution.
caduceus
• Noun
• A staff with two snakes twined around it and
two wings at its top
• The medical profession uses the caduceus as its
emblem.
• Hermes/Mercury carried a caduceus as
messenger of the gods.
mercurial
• Adj
• characterized by rapid and unpredictable
changeableness of mood
• My sister has a mercurial personality; her moods
are constantly fluctuating.
• from Mercury, Roman god of merchandise,
trade, and theft
lethargy n
lethargic adj
• n - Abnormal drowsiness
• adj - sluggish, dull
• My ancient bulldog exhibits lethargy due to her age
and arthritis. I have to cajole her to get up and moving.
• [fr. Gk lethargia, fr. lethargos forgetful, fr. lethe]
• Lethe - a river in Hades whose water caused
forgetfulness of the past in those who drank of it
Draconian – adj.
• Cruel, harsh, severe
• The dictator’s Draconian rules forced people to flee the
country to escape from his cruelty.
• Draco is the Latin word for “dragon”, but it is also Greek
for “lawgiver”. Draco was an Athenian lawgiver whose
harsh legal code punished both trivial and serious
crimes in Athens with death.