This word does not deserve to exist. In the US, everyone learns it when studying for the SATs. It has no other usefulness in our language than tripping up vacuous high school juniors. And that’s a pretty shitty life for any word.
The problem with this word is that it sounds nothing like its meaning. Here’s the Random House definition:
cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident
WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. Here’s what sanguine SHOULD mean:
sad, sour, and under the weather, as if in mourning
Instead, it means the opposite of this. And the etymology of this word only adds to the confusion. From the Latin sanguineus, meaning “of blood”. How in hell did that turn into “cheerfully optimistic”? Most of the time when there’s blood all over the place, we are not particularly hopeful or confident. Unless you’re a vampire. (OMG! Did VAMPIRES invent this word???) When someone uses this word in a sentence that ISN’T about standardized testing, I know I’m talking to a dickhead. (Or a VAMPIRE!!! OMG!!!!1!)
“Sanguine” should be totally stricken from the English language. I hereby renounce it. If a person uses this word when speaking to me, I will hear nothing but static in its place, and cock my head askew like a curious mutt with one floppy ear and one that stands up.
“Rawr?”
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