It's the Word of the Day podcast for September 8th.

Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.coed.uk.ukes slash wanderie.

That's audible.com.com. UK-w-wondery. Today's word is sanguine, spelled S-A-N-G-U-I-N-E.

Senguine is an adjective. It's a formal word that today almost always describes someone who is

confident and hopeful or something that shows confidence and hopefulness.

Sanguin can also describe something that is blood red in color, something involving or relating

to bloodshed, or a person's reddish complexion. Here's the word used in a sentence from time.

David Corenswet is remarkably sanguine about a film that has been the subject of immense scrutiny.

The trailer is the most watched in the history of either D.C. or Warner Brothers,

though he may not want the burden of Superman's success or failure on his, yes, broad shoulders,

it will land there anyway. If you're the sort of cheery, confident soul who always looks on

the bright side no matter what happens, you may be described as sanguine. Senguin traces back to

the Latin noun Sengese, meaning blood.

And over the centuries, the word has had meanings ranging from bloodthirsty to blood red, among other things, in that, ahem, vain.

So how did it also come to mean hopeful?

During the Middle Ages, health and temperament were believed to be governed by the balance of different liquids or humors in one's body, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile, and blood.

Those lucky people who were governed by blood were strong, confident, and even had a healthy reddish glow, all that blood, you know.

They were, in a word, sanguine.

In time, the physiological theory behind the humors was displaced by scientific medicine.

But the word sanguine is still commonly used to describe those who are cheerfully confident.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.

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