Words Such as "Saturnine"

[ThinkMinty]

I recently encountered the word saturnine in some text, and it has me wondering what the other greco-roman deity adjectives are, along with their definitions.

EDIT: Greco-Roman, because reasons.

[thorgrim29]

Well you've got martial at least.

[aurilee]

I recently encountered the word saturnine in some text, and it has me wondering what the other greek deity adjectives are, along with their definitions.

Technically "Saturn" was a Roman deity, not a Greek one.

There's "jovial", which comes from "Jove" (aka Jupiter) as well as "mercurial".

I think historically all these words came from the planets though, not the deities the planets were named after. It had to do with an astrological idea that one would have a certain personality when born "under" a certain planet (similar to the roots of melancholic or choleric meaning a temperament associated with bodily fluids). Of course the planets themselves did come from the Roman gods, and that might also be how the planets got "personalities" so it does tie back to them in some way.

[Eldan]

For Roman gods, lets go by planet. From the top of my head:

Mercurial (inconsistent), venereal (the diseases), terrestrial, martial, jovian, saturnine. Can't think of anything for the rest of the planets. Volcanic, of course. Hadean, as far as I can tell, is only used in geology, where we also have plutonic. Eolian, but I'm not sure if Aeolus was a god. Erotic, if course.

I feel like Oceanic is sort of cheating.

Edit: and The philosophical idea of the Appollonian and the Dyonisian. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian)

PPS: Hermaphroditic.

PPS: But not Hermetic Magic, which is named after Hermes Trismegistos, not the god.

[aurilee]

For Roman gods, lets go by planet. From the top of my head:

Mercurial (inconsistent), venereal (the diseases), terrestrial, martial, jovian, saturnine. Can't think of anything for the rest of the planets. Volcanic, of course. Hadean, as far as I can tell, is only used in geology, where we also have plutonic. Eolian, but I'm not sure if Aeolus was a god. Erotic, if course.

I feel like Oceanic is sort of cheating.

Edit: and The philosophical idea of the Appollonian and the Dyonisian. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian)

PPS: Hermaphroditic.

PPS: But not Hermetic Magic, which is named after Hermes Trismegistos, not the god.

Lots of Roman/Greek conflation going on...

Hades, Eros and Aeolus were all Greek, not Roman. So were Apollo, Dionysus, Hermes and Aphrodite.

EDIT: To clarify, technically the Romans stole Apollo wholesale instead of renaming him like the rest (Zeus --> Jupiter, Artemis --> Diana etc.). So Apollo is a valid Roman god, but he was originally Greek, so I consider him as such.

/pedantry

As for the status of Aeolus, I think the only certain this is that he wasn't human, but I'm not sure if he was a god. Maybe a demi-god. There are also multiple Aeoluses. I think one was a son of Poseidon, so I'm going with demi-god in that instance at least.

Continuing with Greek god-words, you also have aphrodisiac, palladium, harmony, panic, every "-phobia", helium, plus the many words that come from various titans which are close enough to being "gods" (atlas, chronology, titanic itself...). Also Athens.

Other Roman examples off the top of my head are herculean (the Greek version, heraclean is rarely used sadly), which I count because he got to Olympus eventually and a bunch of elements (plutonium, uranium etc.)

[Eldan]

Hm. I'm not sure if adding Phobia makes sense. I'd rather assume Ares' dog was named "Fear", not the concept of fear named after the dog. Similarly, I'm pretty sure Chronos, the god of time, was named "Time" after the concept, not the other way around.

I'm also quite aware of the difference between Roman and Greek gods, I just thought I'd mention both since earlier threads had started it.

[Bulldog Psion]

One of my favorites:

Protean, "everchanging, mutable, inconstant" -- from the (Greek) sea god Proteus; not quite Roman, but definitely in the fuzzy area encompassed by this thread. :smallwink:

[aurilee]

Hm. I'm not sure if adding Phobia makes sense. I'd rather assume Ares' dog was named "Fear", not the concept of fear named after the dog. Similarly, I'm pretty sure Chronos, the god of time, was named "Time" after the concept, not the other way around.

Wasn't Phobos Ares' child, not dog...?

I'm not really sure about the causality involved, since, you know, they're based on myth. It's equally likely that all gods were named after the concepts they represent as it is that the concepts were derived from the names given to the gods.



I'm also quite aware of the difference between Roman and Greek gods, I just thought I'd mention both since earlier threads had started it.

I didn't mean to imply that you personally didn't know the difference, I merely wanted to keep them separate for posterity. Sorry if I offended.

EDIT: Missed the post about Protean, another good one!

[Peelee]

I thought mercurial originated from Mercutio, a la Romeo and Juliet. Imean, Mercutio's name was probably itself derived from the Roman Mercury, but it seems a stretch to say that mercurial is based on Mercury ipso facto, if that is not the case. Or is my etymology off here? The googles are giving conflicting reports.

[factotum]

I thought mercurial originated from Mercutio, a la Romeo and Juliet.

Dictionary.com says that the word is derived through Middle English from the Latin mercurialis, and dates back to the 14th century, a good 250 years before Romeo and Juliet was written.

[SaintRidley]

Dictionary.com says that the word is derived through Middle English from the Latin mercurialis, and dates back to the 14th century, a good 250 years before Romeo and Juliet was written.

This is true, but not for the sense that interests us. The OED records the earliest use in English as reference to a plant which was called the mercurial. As an adjective, it is earliest used with direct reference to things pertaining to the planet and the god, then proceeding from that into the astrological senses pertaining to being born under Mercury.

The sense we're interested in, describing a person who is unpredictable of mind and mood, dates to the 17th century, and does derive from senses associated with the god and the metal, not from Mercutio in Shakespeare. The metal was named after the god because its properties were considered to align with the deity's own qualities, with the OED noting:


Originally such qualities were associated with the god or the planet; the sense is now usually understood to allude to the properties of mercury the metal.

The earliest entry for this meaning is John Trapp's A commentary or exposition upon all the Epistles and the Revelation of John the Divine : (James i. 1) "The most nimble and Mercuriall wits in the world, but light."

So, not related to Mercutio, and derived from the god directly, though we now tend to read the reference as indirect by way of the metall.

[veti]

Junoesque. Victorious. Hermetic[1]. Fortunate. Floral. Priapic. Promethean.

Arguably, also: Charitable. Grateful. Furious.

[1] In the sense of "airtight", at least.

[Knaight]

Lunacy, lunatic, etc. are all pulled from the moon, though in that case it's more the actual physical moon than attached mythological figures.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Ah yes, I quite fondly remember the days of ancient Grome.

Vulcanized.

I think nymphomaniac? Not a god, but w/e.

Pansexual.

I feel like there's a type of insanity named after Dionysus...

[Vinyadan]

Kronos was a different word from chronos (time). Chronological has no etymological connection with him.

And pansexual refers to the adjective pas-pasa-pan, "all", and has nothing to do with the god.

The Titans were gods. The name simply refers to a certain generation of gods. Kronos and Rhea were gods and titans.

Stygian and Bacchic also come to mind. I know more in my language, but checking all of them for the English version would be a pain.

Planetary adjectives come from the influence that the planets were (and, according to some, are) supposed to exercise on mankind. So they are, so to say, a step removed from the gods themselves.

[Mister Tom]

Cereal comes from the Roman Ceres

[The_Snark]

Mnemonic is derived from the titan Mnemosyne.

The word 'zeal' comes from a minor Greek god by the name of Zelus, who personified... well, zeal. Brother to the slightly better-known Nike, goddess of victory.

Along similar lines, the word nemesis comes from the Greek goddess Nemesis.

Bacchanalia (singular bacchanal) originally meant a specific kind of festival in honor of the Roman god Bacchus, but it's occasionally used today as a term for wild partying and revelry.

I've seen Dionysian and Apollonian used as adjectives in philosophy/literary analysis, but this usually involves explicit comparisons to the Greek gods/the ideals they're supposed to represent, so I'm not sure if it counts.

Plutonian. (Not the same as plutonic, which is a geology term, but obviously the root is the same.)

Vestal is of course a reference to Vesta, the Roman goddess of hearth and home, but I don't think I've ever seen it used outside of the phrase 'vestal virgins'.

Dianic is a term coined by some Wiccan groups, in reference to the Roman goddess Diana.

Gaian (or Gaean) is often used to mean "of or pertaining to nature/the Earth in some way". It doesn't appear in dictionaries and I can't find a consistent definition or origin (aside from the obvious), but it keeps getting used and it does convey meaning, so I guess it's a word.

[goto124]

Nike, goddess of victory.

Brand names don't count as words, do they? :smalltongue:

[Knaight]

Brand names don't count as words, do they? :smalltongue:

Kleenex and frisbee do.

[Peelee]

Kleenex and frisbee do.

Eh, they're effectively genericized, even if they still have the legal patents on the name. Hell, freaking dumpster is trademarked, but you'd never know it through normal life. I've yet to see anyone call any random shoe a nike.

[Knaight]

Eh, they're effectively genericized, even if they still have the legal patents on the name. Hell, freaking dumpster is trademarked, but you'd never know it through normal life. I've yet to see anyone call any random shoe a nike.

That would be why I picked the two. Nike hasn't come anywhere near that level yet.

[Aedilred]

Kronos was a different word from chronos (time). Chronological has no etymological connection with him.

There was a Titan named Kronos/Cronus, who became Saturn in Rome, but there was also another, rather more obscure, called Chronos. The two are often confused or conflated due to homophony, though, even contemporaneously.

"Plutonic" is a word, but not one in everyday parlance. I believe "cereal" originates with Ceres.

All of the others that occurred to me as adjectives have been mentioned already in the thread, save for those which directly reference the entity in question and thus probably don't strictly count (e.g. "Stygian"; arguably "Protean" falls into the same category) but a couple have been adopted wholesale as ordinary nouns, like "chaos" or "nemesis"; debatably "paean", and so on.

[Murk]

Now, I know poor Hera/Juno Always got the short end of the stick - I know she was patron of plenty good things, but in all stories she's only mentioned if someone has to be jealous or mean - but I find it very sad that every god in the main pantheon and plenty of their parents have words, but she doesn't :smallfrown:


(Let's make one, OK, and just start using it every day?)

[The_Snark]

Went and looked up a few more.

Zephyr is derived from Zephyrus, god of the west wind. The adjective boreal comes from his brother Boreas, god of the cold north wind.

Aurora was the Roman goddess of dawn. Aurora borealis appears to be a mix of Greek and Roman, but that's because Latin had words derived from Greek myths too.

Euthanasia has its roots in Thanatos, god of death. Morphine was named after Morpheus, god of dreams.

Hypnos has been mentioned already but his Roman counterpart Somnus has not; from him we get insomnia, somnolent, and a few related terms.

Flora was the name of a minor Roman goddess of flowers and fertility; similarly, fauna comes from the fertility god Faunus, or possibly his sister/wife/daughter/general counterpart Fauna.

Iridescent derives from Iris, goddess of the rainbow.

Music is apparently derived from a Greek word meaning 'art of the Muses'. Wow. I did not know that, that's a really basic word.

Not exactly gods, but still words derived from Greco-Roman mythology...

Arachnid is famously derived from Arachne, turned into a spider as a punishment for hubris.

Narcissism is of course derived from the incurably vain Narcissus. (Echo is not; the nymph appears to be named for the word rather than the other way round.)

Typhoon derives from Typhon, the father of most of the monsters that show up in myths.

Lethargy is derived from the river Lethe, which caused forgetfulness and drowsiness.

Halcyon comes from Alcyone, a mortal who was very happy right up until she met a bad end thanks to hubris. She and her husband were turned into kingfishers when the gods cooled down a little and felt bad, and the scientific names for kingfishers contain several references to this myth.

Chaos was the primeval void in Greek cosmogony, but it looks like the word probably preceded the mythological place/being.

Labyrinth is a reference to the famous maze in Crete. It's possible that the place was named for the word, but there's a theory that it's rooted in an older name for the Minoan royal palace, in which case the word would be derived from the myth.

Odyssey comes from Odysseus and his famous journey. Less well-known is Mentor, the guy who taught and advised Odysseus's son while he was away.

[veti]

Now, I know poor Hera/Juno Always got the short end of the stick - I know she was patron of plenty good things, but in all stories she's only mentioned if someone has to be jealous or mean - but I find it very sad that every god in the main pantheon and plenty of their parents have words, but she doesn't :smallfrown:


(Let's make one, OK, and just start using it every day?)

I've already mentioned "Junoesque". You could also make a case that "hero" is related to "Heracles", and thus ultimately from Hera. But I don't know whether that would be valid.

[thorgrim29]

Well Juno has a month, that's not nothing.

[aurilee]

Well Juno has a month, that's not nothing.

And the Canadian music awards...yeah okay that is basically nothing

[MrConsideration]

Panacea and Hygiene come from the daughters of the Greek God Asclepius, Panacea and Hygienia.

[Vinyadan]

I've already mentioned "Junoesque". You could also make a case that "hero" is related to "Heracles", and thus ultimately from Hera. But I don't know whether that would be valid.

I'm pretty sure the etymologies are unrelated. Herakles = Glory of Hera, Hero is a wholly different word (the last etymology I heard from a reliable source was "he who belongs to the moment".)