Word of the Day

: December 27, 2023

sangfroid

noun SAHNG-FRWAH

What It Means

Sangfroid refers to the ability to stay calm in difficult or dangerous situations.

// He displayed remarkable sangfroid when everyone else was panicking during the crisis.

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sangfroid in Context

“[Tennis star, Novak] Djokovic’s wins are not always electric or explosive, but his patience is unparalleled. His ability to wait, to self-discipline and withhold the urge to strike until sensing human weakness, is its own kind of generative art. And he excels most at moments that require a machinelike sangfroid.” — Caira Conner, Intelligencer, 23 Aug. 2023

Did You Know?

Sangfroid comes from the French term sang-froid, which literally translates as “cold blood.” When describing amphibians and reptiles, cold-blooded means “having a body temperature that is similar to the temperature of the environment,” but to dub a person cold-blooded is to say that the person shows no sympathy or mercy to others. By the mid-1700s, English speakers had been using cold-blooded to describe the ruthless among them for more than a century, but in sangfroid they found a way to put a positive spin on the idea of ice in the veins: they borrowed the French term to describe the quality of someone who keeps their composure under strain—that is, not a “cold fish” or “icicle” but someone who is cool as a cucumber.