Welcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, an awesome meme for word nerds hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion.net.
I’m slow out of the blocks this week- the last few days of school have me running around frantic. Can you relate? Whew!
My word comes from the novel Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank. It’s an easy summer read about a woman, Cate Cooper, who is reeling from her husband’s suicide. His “financial and emotional perfidy” leaves her broke, homeless, and looking for answers, so she returns to her childhood home, Folly Beach, South Carolina, to figure things out.
Note: perfidy was a WWW word a few weeks ago! Anyone remember it? Hint: treachery. Read: her husband was a jerk.
As Cate plans to return home,
“…I spoke to Russ [her son], who was perfectly sanguine as most men are about a parent coming to town.”
sanguine \’san-gwən\ adj. from French sanguin-, sanguis; consisting of or relating to blood, 
or marked by sturdiness, high color, and cheerfulness
From my experience with wound care as a physical therapist (NOT the part I miss), I knew sanguine meant bloody. But I didn’t understand how it worked in the sentence quoted above until I looked it up. I guess Cate meant that her son was cheerful about her plans to visit him.
Hope my sons will be sanguine about my visits in 20 years!
Word Nerd Workout
Think of a sanguine character from fiction or movies and tell us about him or her.
I just watched The Great Gatsby, so I’ll say that Jay Gatsby was the most sanguine character of that story; too bad his optimism was somewhat delusional.
Your turn, and thanks for stopping by!
Julia
I am perfectly sanguine about going to work tomorrow. NOT… 😉
Your sons will be sanguine about your visits when they’re in college since they will probably be taken out to dinner and given a little pocket change.
Well Julia, very rarely can I say I knew your word nerd, but this time I do! 🙂 I’ve done some study in past years on the temperments: Choleric, Phlagmatic, Sanguine, Melancholy and Supine. My husband is definitely sanguine and I’m more choleric – it’s good a balance. 😉
Bless you dear, Hester 😉
Yay, Hester! Ahead of the game. Ok, in P.T. terms, supine means lying on your back. I wonder what that suggests about temperament? Lazy? 🙂
I just saw Gatsby too! It was the last thing we did before my water broke! He is definitely more sanguine than the other characters, but by the end of the story, when Daisy won’t stay with him, his anxiety really overshadows his optimism.
You’re right- he kind of loses it. I thought Leo did that very well! 🙂
Interesting – I always associated sanguine with “peaceful” or “calm” and that’s not correct! I’ve never read Dorthea, but keep seeing her books on the library shelf; thanks for the recommendation! As for a character…Scarlett O’Hara was stubborn, sturdy, strong, and could be awfully sanguine when it suited her purposes! (and look at all that alliteration 🙂
Oooh. I didn’t think of Scarlett, but she’s perfect. And her name is even the right color for it… wonder if Ms. Mitchell did that on purpose!
I always love it when I already know the Word Nerd word! The sanguine character that popped into my mind is actually a movie character: Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. Yes, I know that’s fluffy, but I just finished editing a chapter my Judges study and that’s the best I can do 😉
And thanks for the Dorothea Benton Frank link. She’s always a great beach read!
No worries, Susan. She fits!