sanguine
Noun pluralsanguines
Pluralsanguines
- 1Expecting the best; hopeful and confident about how things will turn out.
Investors remain sanguine about the company's prospects despite a weak quarter.
Few economists share the minister's sanguine forecast of strong growth next year.
UsageUsually sanguine about something. Not very sanguine is a polite way to voice doubt.
Similaroptimistic, hopeful, confident, upbeat, positive
Oppositepessimistic, gloomy, despondent, blue
Note
Hope is now the word's main job, and it usually takes about (sanguine about the project) or, in older prose, as to: Trollope's Dr. Gwynne was not very sanguine as to the effects of his journey. Jane Austen pins down the temperament in Emma: a sanguine temper is "for ever expecting more good than occurs". Its opposites run from gloomy to despondent.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Trollope's narrator describes Dr. Gwynne as not very sanguine about the effects of his journey in Barchester Towers. gutenberg.org
- The quoted words appear in Jane Austen's Emma, in the narrator's discussion of Mr. Weston's temperament. gutenberg.org
- 2In old medicine, having plenty of actively flowing blood, with blood the main bodily humor, thought to give a ruddy face and a warm, cheerful temperament.
Medieval doctors thought a sanguine man had blood to spare, which gave him rosy cheeks and a merry, easygoing temper.
What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!
c. 1588, William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”Note
The old medicine of humors explains it: a body in which blood outweighed the other humors was thought to make a person cheerful, warm and sociable. Shakespeare's insults use it for the ruddy face that went with that temperament: "ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys!" in Titus Andronicus, and Falstaff as a sanguine coward in Henry IV, Part 1. That cheerful, confident temperament is the root of today's hopeful meaning.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- In humoral medicine, the sanguine constitution was associated with blood predominating over the other humors. en.wikipedia.org
- The sanguine temperament was traditionally associated with cheerfulness, warmth, and sociability. en.wikipedia.org
- Aaron says the quoted phrase to Chiron and Demetrius in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Act 4, scene 2. shakespeare.mit.edu
- The Titus Andronicus insult refers to ruddy complexions. resources.warburg.sas.ac.uk
- Prince Hal calls Falstaff a sanguine coward in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Act 2, scene 4. folger.edu
- The Falstaff insult connects his ruddy complexion with the sanguine temperament. dehesa.unex.es
- The hopeful meaning derives from the association of blood with a cheerful, confident temperament in humoral medicine. en.wiktionary.org
- 3
- 4Of the red color of blood.
A sanguine glow spread across the western hills as the battle ended.
The rose's sanguine petals looked almost black in the dim light.
Similarblood-red, crimson, scarlet
Note
Every sense of the word starts here, with blood: it comes through Old French sanguin from Latin sanguineus, "of blood," from sanguis, "blood." As a color word it belongs to literary writing, where it sits beside incarnadine. Everyday prose says blood-red, and because readers now hear the hopeful meaning first, a sanguine sky works best where the context is already full of red.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Sanguine derives through Old French sanguin from Latin sanguineus, meaning 'of blood', from sanguis, meaning 'blood'. Its senses share this blood-derived origin. en.wiktionary.org
- 5Red chalk, a reddish-brown drawing chalk made from red ochre, or a drawing made with it.
The old master's study of a hand, drawn in sanguine, sold at auction last week.
He switched from charcoal to sanguine to warm up the skin tones in his sketch.
Less common meanings
- 6Full of or covered with blood.
Note
An archaic use for what is literally covered or filled with blood: hands, bandages, an apron. Bloodied and gory do the work now, and sanguinolent is a learned synonym. Since most readers take the word as hopeful, sanguine hands in modern prose would look like a mistake; the sense belongs to historical fiction or deliberate pastiche.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Sanguine has an archaic sense meaning full of blood or bloody. en.wiktionary.org
- Bloodied, gory and sanguinolent are synonyms of sanguine in its bloody sense. en.wiktionary.org
- 7
- 8Eager to shed blood or to see it shed.
Note
Here the blood is wanted, not present: a sanguine ruler hungers for killing, where the bloody meaning describes what is already stained. Murderous and homicidal carry the meaning today. Read sanguine this way only in older writing, and only when cruelty is the subject, since a sanguine king would otherwise be taken as merely hopeful.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Sanguine has an archaic meaning of bloodthirsty. en.wiktionary.org
- A separate meaning of sanguine describes something bloody or bloodied. en.wiktionary.org
- 9In heraldry, a blood-red tincture that is seldom used and is distinct from murrey.
- 10To stain with blood, or to give something the color of blood.
- 11The stone known as bloodstone.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of sanguine apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Latin sanguis ("blood") is of uncertain origin, though it probably traces back to a Proto-Indo-European word for blood. It gave rise to Latin sanguineus ("of blood"), which passed through Old French sanguin and Middle English sanguine into modern English, making the word a doublet of sanguineous. In the humor theory of Hippocrates and Galen, an abundance of blood was thought to produce a cheerful, confident nature, giving rise to the modern sense of hopeful.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Latin sanguis means blood; its origin is uncertain, but a Proto-Indo-European word for blood is its probable source. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin sanguineus derives from sanguis and means of blood. en.wiktionary.org
- English sanguine came through Middle English sanguine and Old French sanguin from Latin sanguineus. en.wiktionary.org
- Sanguine and sanguineous are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
- The humoral theory associated with Hippocrates and Galen linked blood with the sanguine temperament. nlm.nih.gov
- A predominance of blood was believed to produce a cheerful temperament. en.wikipedia.org
- The hopeful sense developed from the historical association of blood with cheerfulness, optimism and confidence. en.wiktionary.org