sanguine
/ˈsæŋ.ɡwɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.74 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having a bodily constitution characterised by a preponderance of blood over the other bodily humours, thought to be marked by irresponsible mirth; indulgent in pleasure to the exclusion of important matters.
Obsolete
adj
Characterized by abundance and active circulation of blood.
adj
Anticipating the best; optimistic; confident; full of hope.
Example Sentences
- "What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!"
- "I'll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker, this huge hill of flesh."
- "a sanguine bodily temperament"
- "Eleonore Lemindre, aged 34, tailoress, of a sanguine lymphatic temperament, having suffered great depression of spirits, experienced, in the course of 1820, symptoms of what is called disease of the heart."
- "a sanguine temper"
- "I'm sanguine about the eventual success of the project."
Etymology
From Middle English sanguine, from Old French sanguin, ultimately from Latin sanguineus (“of blood”), from sanguis (“blood”) (of uncertain origin, but probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₁sh₂-én-, from *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”), with an obscure suffix such as *-ǵʰ- (related to body parts)) + -inus + -eus. The obsolete medical sense is in reference to the humour (blood) which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with cheerfulness, optimism, confidence, liveliness, and spiritedness. Doublet of sanguineous.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.
Inflected Forms
more sanguine (comparative)
most sanguine (superlative)
sanguines (plural)
sanguines (present, singular)
sanguining (participle, present)
sanguined (participle, past)
sanguined (past)