I have been using this word wrongly

[puppydisaster]

For my whole adult life I thought "sanguine" meant laid-back, chilled out, resigned to what fate would dole out.

As in "I used to get stressed about exams but I'm more sanguine now I'm older".

I found out this week that "sanguine" means optimistic! So obviously the above sentence still makes sense but not how I intended it.

What on earth is the word I want to use?

I thought the same as you, thank you for correcting me.

Did you maybe mean serene?

Funny, I use pinnacle wrong and even now I know the real meaning, my way still makes more sense to me!

For years I thought hoi-polloi meant posh people - it still sounds as if it should mean that to me!

Oh dear. I thought it meant the same thing you did. I've learned something today.

Not quite serene, more resigned to whatever will happen.

What did you think "pinnacle" meant, out of interest?

Stoic maybe?

I thought the same, OP - I’ve just been driven to look it up!

At least it’s not a very commonly used word.

OTOH ‘discrete’ is often misused on MN, when they mean ‘discreet’ - the meanings are entirely different.

Yes, stoic is a good fit, thank you!

Before I opened this, I knew you were going to say sanguine.

There’s an episode of Modern Family where Claire is trying to join a book club and keeps using sanguine incorrectly, only for her super clever daughter Alex to correct her. Chris Martin has a cameo in the episode and he corrects her too. It’s very funny.

I’m with you op. I know what it actually means, but for some reason I’ve always thought it sounds perfect as an “I’m really chilled/relaxed about this situation” type of word.🤷‍♀️

I think sanguine gets mixed up with sang froid sometimes.

My phone does not like sang froid 😬

Damn droids 😂

There is always "l'anglais avec son sang froid habituel" translated as "the Englishman with his habitual bloody cold". 😂
Sanguine relates to blood in French, including blood oranges.

@HilaryThorpe and 'exsanguinate' for the morbid amongst us. To drain of blood.

I've been doing the same! Thanks for educating me op.

If you like the humours you could always go for phlegmatic instead?

Otherwise I'd go for maybe equanimous or unrufflable or maybe fatalistic depending on the nuance you want?

I always thought it meant sad and moody. Thankfully it's not a word I've ever said out loud 😅

Where we live people often use 'ignorant' as meaning ignoring people. 'Sorry I've lost my phone I'm not just being ignorant', 'sorry I didn't realise you were speaking I wasn't being ignorant'. Drives me mad!!

OTOH ‘discrete’ is often misused on MN, when they mean ‘discreet’ - the meanings are entirely different.

Agreed. See also my personal jaw-clencher, 'obligated' vs 'obliged' - while the meanings are related, one is not an exact synonym of the other.

(Quick example - 'obligated' conveys a legal sense of binding to do something - i.e. 'the company was obligated to maintain an incident report' - while 'obliged' conveys a sense of doing something without expecting any reward in return and also the sense of being grateful or indebted - i.e. 'I am deeply obliged to you for your kindness in looking after my swarm of tropical fish while I went backpacking in Borneo')

Het hem. I think you'll find it's shoal of tropical fish........

Eek - so did l!! What does it mean then?!

My mum does this! I grew up hearing things like "can you stop being ignorant and acknowledge that I'm speaking to you?" and "take your headphones off, that's so bloody ignorant".

I was a teenager before I realised it was totally wrong. I also remember her frequently misusing the phrase "no man is an island". She seems to think it means that women shouldn't be reliant on a man (i.e. viewing the man as safety or sanctuary) when it actually just means that nobody can thrive alone.

Hoi polloi just means ‘the people’. So when using it you shouldn’t say ‘the hoi polloi’ as then you’re saying ‘the the people’.

I thought it meant accepting of, relaxed about or laid back.
Glad to know I'm not the only one!

I wonder why it is that so many of us have the same (wrong) understanding of this word? There is something about the sound of it that is almost onomatopoeic??
I have been trying to retrain myself to use 'phlegmatic'

*instead.