| 释义 |
‖ Saturnalia, n. pl.|sætəˈneɪlɪə|
[L. Sāturnālia, neut. pl. of Saturnālis saturnal a.]
1. Roman Antiq. The festival of Saturn, held in the middle of December, observed as a time of general unrestrained merrymaking, extending even to the slaves. (Also, the title of a work by Macrobius.)
Now always with capital S.
1591L. Lloyd Tripl. Triumphes B 3, Imitating the orders and maners in the feast Saturnalia. a1654Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 33 Christmas succeeds the Saturnalia. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. xli. IV. 176 The first days, which coincided with the old Saturnalia, were [etc.]. 1886Encycl. Brit. XXI. 321/2 Saturnalia. This, the great festival of Saturn, was celebrated..after Cæsar's reform of the calendar on the 17th of December. Augustus decreed that the 17th should be sacred to Saturn and the 19th to Ops. Hence⁓forward it appears that the 17th and 18th were devoted to the Saturnalia.
2. transf. and fig. A period of unrestrained licence and revelry. Sometimes construed as sing.
In this sense not unfrequently with small initial.
1775Answer to Pamphlet, entitled Taxation no Tyranny 61 Thus you would establish a Saturnalia of cruelty, and expose these devoted men to the brutality of their own slaves. 1782H. Walpole Let. to W. Mason 8 July, Malignity at least will have its Saturnalia. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. xcvii, But France got drunk with blood to vomit crime, And fatal have her Saturnalia been, To Freedom's cause. 1856Olmsted Slave States 101 From Christmas to New-Year's Day, most of the slaves, except house servants, enjoy a freedom from labor; and Christmas is especially holiday, or Saturnalia, with them. 1899Rider Haggard Farmer's Yr. 147 This was the beginning of a perfect saturnalia of tail-cutting and other operations [among the lambs]. |