♄

♄ U+2644, ♄ SATURN ← ♃ [U+2643] Miscellaneous Symbols ♅ → [U+2645]

Translingual

Etymology

The Greek letters kappa-rho with an abbreviation stroke at bottom, for Κρόνος (Krónos), the Greek equivalent to the Roman god Saturn. The cross at top was added later, to Christianize the symbol of a pagan god.

Use of ♄ for Saturday, on the left side of the calendar dial of this 16th-century clock-calendar, just above the day-of-the-week hand.

Symbol

♄

1. (astronomy, astrology) Saturn.
2. (alchemy) lead.
3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (botany, obsolete) woody perennial plant.

   (the orbital period of Saturn is 30 years)

4. (rare) Saturday.

   Refers to the Latin phrase dies Saturni, which literally means "Saturn's day".

Derived terms

• (alchemy): 🜪 – lead ore.

Gallery

• 
  Late Classical and Medieval forms
• 
  A ligature of ϰ and ϱ for Kronos
• 
  The Saturn symbol before the cross was added
• 
  A decorative variant in the Netherlands
• 
  As a symbol for lead
• 
  An abstract variant
• 
  Symbol on a royal-blue background
• 
  Mariner logo
• 
  Transit of Saturn

English

Symbol

♄

1. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this redundant sense?) (alchemy) lead
   • 1650, Paracelsus, “Of the Nature of Things”, in John French, transl., A New Light of Alchymie, page 74:

     If thou wilt turne ♄ into ♃ make plates of ♄, ſtrow them with Salt Armoniack, cement, and melt them, as aboveſaid, ſo will all the blackneſſe, and darkneſſe bee taken away from the Lead, and it will be in whiteneſſe like fair Engliſh Tin.

Derived terms

• ♄ine

Latin

Proper noun

♄us m (genitive ♄ī); second declension

1. (alchemy) Abbreviation of Saturn.
   • c. 1653-1656, George Starkey, translated by William R. Newman, Lawrence M. Principe, Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence, University of Chicago Press, published 2004, pages 104, 209:

     Ideo ☾ perpetuò quasi semine est semper multiplicabilis in veram ☾ quae non perit in ♄i Examine.
     In quo ♄o notabile est, 1^o quod durior sit, ac proinde licet malleabile, tamen frangi potest, nec tam bene ac ♄us naturalis malleari possit.

     In which Saturn is notable: First, that it is harder, and therefore although it is malleable, yet it can be broken, and cannot be hammered so well as natural Saturn.
     Therefore Luna [silver], as though by a perennial seed, is always multiplicable into true Luna that does not perish upon examination with Saturn [lead].

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	♄, ♄us	♄ī
genitive	♄ī	♄ōrum
dative	♄ō	♄īs
accusative	♄um	♄ōs
ablative	♄ō	♄īs
vocative	♄e	♄ī

Derived terms

• ♄i

Derived forms

• ♄inus