sangfroid
See also: sang-froid and sang froid
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from French sang-froid, from sang (“blood”) + froid (“cold”).
Pronunciation
Noun
sangfroid (usually uncountable, plural sangfroids)
- Composure, self-possession or imperturbability especially when in a dangerous situation.
- Synonyms: aplomb, poise, unflappability
- He handled the stressful situation with great sangfroid.
- 1920, D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love, ch. 1:
- The provincial people, intimidated by Gudrun’s perfect sang-froid and exclusive bareness of manner, said of her: “She is a smart woman."
- 1961, Richard Bellman, Adaptive Control Processes: A Guided Tour, Princeton University Press (1961), p. 197
- We can handle functions of a few variables with some aplomb and view sets of quantities totalling 106 or 107 with sangfroid.
- 2011 July 28, Terry Castle, “Do I like it?”, in London Review of Books[1], volume 33, number 15, →ISSN:
- Indeed, some of the little naked human figures seemed to display a near comical sangfroid, even as they were pecked by giant birds, hatched out of eggs, had huge flowers inserted in their bottoms, or, in the case of one of my favourites, sported a monstrous blueberry instead of a head.
- 2013 January, Brian Hayes, “Father of Fractals”, in American Scientist[2], volume 101, number 1, page 62:
- Toward the end of the war, Benoit was sent off on his own with forged papers; he wound up working as a horse groom at a chalet in the Loire valley. Mandelbrot describes this harrowing youth with great sangfroid.
Related terms
Translations
composure, self-possession or imperturbability
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations