12 results for: sanguine

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

san·guine

Audio Help [sang-gwin] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident: a sanguine disposition; sanguine expectations.

2.	reddish; ruddy: a sanguine complexion.

3.	(in old physiology) having blood as the predominating humor and consequently being ruddy-faced, cheerful, etc.

4.	bloody; sanguinary.

5.	blood-red; red.

6.	Heraldry. a reddish-purple tincture.

–noun

7.	a red iron-oxide crayon used in making drawings.

[Origin: 1275–1325; ME sanguyne a blood-red cloth < OF sanguin < L sanguineus bloody, equiv. to sanguin-, s. of sanguis blood + -eus -eous

]

—Related forms

san·guine·ly, adverb

san·guin·i·ty, san·guin·ness, noun

—Synonyms 1. enthusiastic, buoyant, animated, lively, spirited.

—Antonyms 1. morose.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
sanguine

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

san·guine Audio Help (sāng'gwĭn) Pronunciation Key
adj.

1. Of the color of blood; red.
2. Of a healthy reddish color; ruddy: a sanguine complexion.
3. Having blood as the dominant humor in terms of medieval physiology.
4. Having the temperament and ruddy complexion formerly thought to be characteristic of a person dominated by this humor; passionate.
Archaic
1. Having blood as the dominant humor in terms of medieval physiology.
2. Having the temperament and ruddy complexion formerly thought to be characteristic of a person dominated by this humor; passionate.
Cheerfully confident; optimistic.

[Middle English, from Old French sanguin, from Latin sanguineus, from sanguis, sanguin-, blood.]

san'guine·ly adv., san'guine·ness, san·guin'i·ty n.

Word History: The similarity in form between sanguine, "cheerfully optimistic," and sanguinary, "bloodthirsty," may prompt one to wonder how they have come to have such different meanings. The explanation lies in medieval physiology with its notion of the four humors or bodily fluids (blood, bile, phlegm, and black bile). The relative proportions of these fluids was thought to determine a person's temperament. If blood was the predominant humor, one had a ruddy face and a disposition marked by courage, hope, and a readiness to fall in love. Such a temperament was called sanguine, the Middle English ancestor of our word sanguine. The source of the Middle English word was Old French sanguin, itself from Latin sanguineus. Both the Old French and Latin words meant "bloody," "blood-colored," Old French sanguin having the sense "sanguine in temperament" as well. Latin sanguineus was in turn derived from sanguis, "blood," just as English sanguinary is. The English adjective sanguine, first recorded in Middle English before 1350, continues to refer to the cheerfulness and optimism that accompanied a sanguine temperament but no longer has any direct reference to medieval physiology.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
sanguine

1319, "type of red cloth," from O.Fr. sanguin (fem. sanguine), from L. sanguineus "of blood," also "bloody, bloodthirsty," from sanguis (gen. sanguinis) "blood" (see sanguinary). Meaning "blood-red" is recorded from 1382. Meaning "cheerful, hopeful, confident" first attested 1509, since these qualities were thought in medieval physiology to spring from an excess of blood as one of the four humors.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

sanguine
adjective
1.	confidently optimistic and cheerful
2.	inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life; "a ruddy complexion"; "Santa's rubicund cheeks"; "a fresh and sanguine complexion" [syn: rubicund]
noun
1.	a blood-red color

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

san·guine (snggwn)
adj.

Of a healthy, reddish color; ruddy.
Cheerfully confident; optimistic.
Having blood as the dominant humor in terms of medieval physiology.
Archaic Having the temperament and ruddy complexion that was formerly thought to be characteristic of a person dominated by this humor; passionate.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Main Entry: san·guine
Pronunciation: 'sa[ng]-gw&n
Function: adjective
1 a : consisting of or relating to blood b of the complexion : RUDDY
2 : having blood as the predominating bodily humor; also : having the bodily conformation and temperament held characteristic of such predominance and marked by sturdiness, high color, and cheerfulness

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sanguine

Cray"on\ (kr?"?n), n. [F., a crayon, a lead pencil (crayon Cont['e] Cont['e]'s pencil, i. e., one made a black compound invented by Cont['e]), fr. craie chalk, L. creta; said to be, properly, Cretan earth, fr. Creta the island Crete. Cf. Cretaceous.]

1. An implement for drawing, made of clay and plumbago, or of some preparation of chalk, usually sold in small prisms or cylinders.

Let no day pass over you . . . without giving some strokes of the pencil or the crayon. --Dryden.

Note: The black crayon gives a deeper black than the lead pencil. This and the colored crayons are often called chalks. The red crayon is also called sanguine. See Chalk, and Sanguine.

2. A crayon drawing.

3. (Electricity) A pencil of carbon used in producing electric light.

Crayon board, cardboard with a surface prepared for crayon drawing.

Crayon drawing, the act or art of drawing with crayons; a drawing made with crayons.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Sanguine

San"guine\, a. [F. sanguin, L. sanguineus, fr. sanguis blood. Cf. Sanguineous.]

1. Having the color of blood; red.

Of his complexion he was sanguine. --Chaucer.

Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. --Milton.

2. Characterized by abundance and active circulation of blood; as, a sanguine bodily temperament.

3. Warm; ardent; as, a sanguine temper.