sanguine
Other forms: sanguinely; sanguines
If you're sanguine about a situation, that means you're optimistic that everything's going to work out fine.
Sanguine is from Latin sanguis, "blood," and it originally meant "bloody" — in medieval medicine, it described someone whose ruddy complexion was a sign of an optimistic outlook. That was back when people thought that "bodily humors" like blood were responsible for people's attitudes. Now that we no longer believe in humors, sanguine has settled down as a fancy way to say someone is cheerfully confident that things will work out well.
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confidently optimistic and cheerfulsynonyms:optimisticexpecting the best in this best of all possible worlds
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inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life
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a blood-red color
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Vocabulary lists containing sanguine
Words selected by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Looking to build your vocabulary? Then practice this list of 300 "hard words" — the kind that used to be tested on the SAT before 2016. If you're a high school student prepping for the SAT, check out Vocabulary.com's Roadmap to the SAT, which focuses on the vocabulary you'll need to ace today's SAT test.
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