sangfroid

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 27, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>sangfroid</strong> &#149; \SAHNG-FRWAH\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><em>Sangfroid</em> refers to the ability to stay calm in difficult or dangerous situations.</p> <p>// He displayed remarkable <em>sangfroid</em> when everyone else was panicking during the crisis.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sangfroid">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“[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 <em>sangfroid</em>.” — Caira Conner, <em>Intelligencer</em>, 23 Aug. 2023</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Sangfroid</em> comes from the French term <em>sang-froid</em>, which literally translates as “cold blood.” When describing amphibians and reptiles, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cold-blooded"><em>cold-blooded</em></a> means “having a body temperature that is similar to the temperature of the environment,” but to dub a person <em>cold-blooded</em> is to say that the person shows no sympathy or mercy to others. By the mid-1700s, English speakers had been using <em>cold-blooded</em> to describe the ruthless among them for more than a century, but in <em>sangfroid</em> 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 “<a href="https://bit.ly/3RbywqR">cold fish</a>” or “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/icicle">icicle</a>” but someone who is cool as a cucumber.</p> <br /><br />