"Saturday night palsy" meaning in English

See Saturday night palsy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: Introduced mistakenly as a simplification of saturnine palsy, a complication of lead poisoning which has a similar presentation. Folk etymology associates it with carousing and intoxication on Saturday nights, which causes the individual to fall asleep in unnatural positions, such as on a chair or bed with one arm hanging over the edge. Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} Saturday night palsy (uncountable)
  1. (medicine, informal) Paralysis due to radial nerve compression in the arm, resulting from direct pressure against a firm object. Tags: informal, uncountable Categories (topical): Medicine Hyponyms: honeymoon palsy Related terms: night palsy
    Sense id: en-Saturday_night_palsy-en-noun-PqNQAz2M Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Topics: medicine, sciences
{
  "etymology_text": "Introduced mistakenly as a simplification of saturnine palsy, a complication of lead poisoning which has a similar presentation.\nFolk etymology associates it with carousing and intoxication on Saturday nights, which causes the individual to fall asleep in unnatural positions, such as on a chair or bed with one arm hanging over the edge.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
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        "1": "-"
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      "expansion": "Saturday night palsy (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
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          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Medicine",
          "orig": "en:Medicine",
          "parents": [
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            "Healthcare",
            "Sciences",
            "Health",
            "All topics",
            "Body",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Paralysis due to radial nerve compression in the arm, resulting from direct pressure against a firm object."
      ],
      "hyponyms": [
        {
          "word": "honeymoon palsy"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-Saturday_night_palsy-en-noun-PqNQAz2M",
      "links": [
        [
          "medicine",
          "medicine"
        ],
        [
          "Paralysis",
          "paralysis"
        ],
        [
          "radial nerve",
          "radial nerve"
        ],
        [
          "compression",
          "compression"
        ],
        [
          "arm",
          "arm"
        ],
        [
          "direct",
          "direct"
        ],
        [
          "pressure",
          "pressure"
        ],
        [
          "firm",
          "firm"
        ],
        [
          "object",
          "object"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(medicine, informal) Paralysis due to radial nerve compression in the arm, resulting from direct pressure against a firm object."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "night palsy"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Saturday night palsy"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Introduced mistakenly as a simplification of saturnine palsy, a complication of lead poisoning which has a similar presentation.\nFolk etymology associates it with carousing and intoxication on Saturday nights, which causes the individual to fall asleep in unnatural positions, such as on a chair or bed with one arm hanging over the edge.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Saturday night palsy (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyponyms": [
    {
      "word": "honeymoon palsy"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "night palsy"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
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        "English informal terms",
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        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Medicine"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Paralysis due to radial nerve compression in the arm, resulting from direct pressure against a firm object."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "medicine",
          "medicine"
        ],
        [
          "Paralysis",
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        ],
        [
          "radial nerve",
          "radial nerve"
        ],
        [
          "compression",
          "compression"
        ],
        [
          "arm",
          "arm"
        ],
        [
          "direct",
          "direct"
        ],
        [
          "pressure",
          "pressure"
        ],
        [
          "firm",
          "firm"
        ],
        [
          "object",
          "object"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(medicine, informal) Paralysis due to radial nerve compression in the arm, resulting from direct pressure against a firm object."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Saturday night palsy"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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