Word of the Day

: January 16, 2022

sanguine

adjective SANG-gwin

What It Means

Sanguine means "confidently optimistic."

// The young CEO is sanguine about the struggling company's future.

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sanguine in Context

"Mystifyingly, the Tony-nominated actress was never invited to audition for the 2020 Broadway revival of … 'West Side Story.' But given the way things worked out, [Ariana DeBose]—who was cast in Spielberg's movie shortly afterward—is pretty sanguine about the slight. 'I think everything happens for a reason,' she says. 'That was not my blessing. That was somebody else's blessing.'" — Sara Stewart, The New York Post, 8 Dec. 2021

Did You Know?

If you're the sort of cheery soul who always looks on the bright side no matter what happens, you have a sanguine personality. Sanguine is the name of one of the temperaments that ancient and medieval scholars believed was caused by an abundance of one of the four humors. It comes from sanguineus—Latin for "of or relating to blood" or "bloody"—and over centuries has had meanings ranging from "bloodthirsty" and "bloodred" to "confidently optimistic."