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240 wordies list
sanguine |
(adj): confidently optimistic and cheerful
(adj): vs. pessimistic) -- (expecting the best in this best of all possible worlds
(adj): inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life
(adj): vs. unhealthy) -- (having or indicating good health in body or mind; free from infirmity or disease
(n): a blood-red color
(n): red color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of blood
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Rolig, well put--I like this word for similar reasons.
Also, henceforth I'd like to be called Sangfroid the Sanguine.
Ha! "Sangfroid the Sanguine" sounds like the name of one of CharlesFerdinand's kings: "In the days of Sangfroid the Sanguine, the country remained at peace for none of his neighbors was able to provoke him to war."
Maybe... "Sangfroid the Sanguine." Although sangfroid is not a verb. More's the pity. *thinking about how one might sangfroid if one chose to*
How cultures interpret words like this is fascinating. In French, sangfroid and, in Russian, хладнокровие (khladnokroviye) are good qualities in a person, both conveying the sense of "cool-headedness"; in English, however, cold-bloodedness is definitely not something you want to encounter. I tend to associate sanguine with sangfroid. I pronounce the word in a way that almost rhymes with penguin (another cool character), so Cole Porter would have to change his tune to make this word fit for me.
Hm. Maybe you've put your finger on why I don't like it much, though I'm enthusiastic about other words that call to mind the Middle Ages: this one doesn't sound at all like what it means. When I look at sanguinary, and then sanguine, I never get the meaning right. *ponders*
Isn't there a song, "Begin the Sanguine"? There should be.
Oh, I love this word, just like I love all the words still in use that hark back to medieval concepts about the mind-body-elements-planets relationships: bilious, choleric, melancholic, humorous, saturnine, jovial, mercurial, etc. And I don't think sanguine is pretentious when it's used to mean "optimistic, positive, cheerful, unruffled". Its synonyms don't really convey so directly the same sense that the attitude so discribed relates to something inherent in a person's character. I also like the fact that it comes from a word for "blood" and that it has as a much darker, tragic cousin in the word sanguinary.
Blood.
Also, it's just a pretentious word, I think—like the S word. (I don't like or dislike it much, myself.)
I'm amazed this has so many listings. What's the appeal??
This, with sepia, is a key colour in classical drawing.
This word is etymologically closely related to the word sanguinary which means "bloodthirsty".
the color of blood.
'God! what a beauty! what a lovely charming thing!' he exclaimed. 'Haven't they raised it on snails and sour milk, Nelly? Oh damn my soul! but that's worse than I expected--and the devil knows I was not sanguine!'
--Emily Brontë, 1847, Wuthering Heights
"Hopeful. Plus, point of interest, it also means 'bloody.'"
Jon Stewart mispronounced this one pretty badly.
This is odd - this word seems have been added to 17 Wordie lists in the last week, but it is a the bottom of the list, not the top.