This is one of those words that (to misquote The Princess Bride) doesn’t mean what I think it means. If you’re sanguine then you’re confidentally optimistic about something, or eagerly hopeful (I thought it meant you were resigned to something, which is entirely wrong). It also means ‘of or relating to blood’, and you can use it as an adjective to describe something that’s blood red. This second meaning makes sense when you know that the Latin word for blood is ‘sanguis’.
But how did a word that means ‘bloody’ also come to mean ‘optimistic’? Well, during the Middle Ages people believed that the human body contained four different liquids. These were called humours, and they were:
(Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.)
phlegm
black bile (also called ‘melancholy’)
yellow bile
blood.
The key to perfect health was to have all these humours balanced. But, everyone had one that dominated. So people who were solid, calm and unemotional were thought to have too much phlegm going on – which is where we get the word ‘phlegmatic’. Too much black or yellow bile meant you were bilious i.e. bad tempered. Blood was the best of the humours to be dominated by – these people were strong, confident and courageous. In short, sanguine.
As medical science advanced and germ theory came to the fore, the idea of humours slowly disappeared. But the words attached to them have stayed with us.
We get a few other bloody words from the same roots as ‘sanguine’ which you may or may not have heard of. These include:
‘sanguineous’ meaning ‘bloodthirsty’
‘consanguineous’ which means ‘descended from the same ancestor’
exsanguination, which is what vampires do i.e. drain your blood
sanguinary which means ‘murderous’ or ‘bloody’
sanguinolent which is an adjective meaning something is ‘tinged with blood’.
(Thanks to my friend Rob Frankson for giving me the idea for this.)
The four humours in action – which one are you?
(Image from Wikipedia)