Monday, March 2, 2009


Word of the Day for Monday, March 2, 2009
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sanguine \SANG-gwin\, adjective, noun:
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1. cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident
2. reddish; ruddy
3. (in old physiology) having blood as the predominating humor and consequently being ruddy-faced, cheerful, etc.
4. blood-red; red
5. Heraldry. a reddish-purple tincture.
6. a red iron-oxide crayon used in making drawings
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The B.O.'s morbidly obese budget proposal is irrationally sanguine!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog
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by 1319, "type of red cloth," from Old French sanguin (feminine form, sanguine), from Latin sanguineus "of blood," also "bloody, bloodthirsty," from sanguis "blood." 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.

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