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A saturnalia is a stretch of time when people throw off the usual rules and enjoy themselves in a wild, noisy, way — too much food and drink, dancing, shouting, a crowd that has forgotten to be careful. It is a word: you meet it in newspapers and novels more than in the street, and it often sounds a little , as if the fun has gone too far. The name was borrowed from Saturnalia, the old Roman winter festival of the god Saturn, when for a few days the city made merry and even and masters swapped places. English later stretched that festival-name to any later burst of wild celebration. One party can be called a saturnalia; the Roman holiday itself is usually Saturnalia with a capital S.
放縱的狂歡（書面語；本義是古羅馬的農神節）
組成A learned borrowing from Latin Sāturnālia, the festival of Saturn.
同家族的字
- Saturnthe festival, and later the word, belong to the god Saturn
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Saturnalianame/ˌsætəˈneɪli.ə/
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historicalAn Ancient Roman holiday honoring the deity Saturn.
- 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.
saturnalianoun/ˌsætəˈneɪli.ə/
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A period or occasion of general license, in which the passions or vices have riotous indulgence; a period of unrestrained revelry.
- a man who mounts the Hustings, must not allow himself to be sore-boned, or he invites his opponents to 'touch him on the raw,' not in the exercise of their malice, but their power; an election is a saturnalia."
- They lodged men and women on the same floor; and with the night there began a saturnalia of debauchery—scenes such as never before had been witnessed in America.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。