-ine

(Greek > Latin: a suffix that is used to form hundreds of words that mean: similar to, resembling, like, characterized by, or of the nature of)

This element is also utilized to form abstract nouns; feminine common nouns; and it is used in chemistry to form names of alkaloids and bases or names of elements.

rhizine: root
A root-like structure on the underside of a lichen, consisting of one or several rhizoids.
riverine (RIV uh righn", RIV uh ren") (adjective), more riverine, most riverine
Of or pertaining to a canal of water and the inhabitants that are dwelling on the banks of a river
rucerine: swamp deer
A reference to Indian swamp deer.
rupicaprine (adjective), more rupicaprine, most rupicaprine
1. A reference to chamoix or chamois: Rupicaprine hoofed mammals dwell in the mountains of Eurasia and have upright horns with backward-hooked tips.
2. Etymology: from Middle French, from Late Latin camox; a small goatlike bovid (Rupicapra rupicapra) of mountainous regions from southern Europe to the Caucasus.
sabelline: sables
A reference to sables.
saccharine or sugar
1. Of, pertaining to or of the nature of sugar;.
2. Characteristic of sugar; sugary.
3. Composed chiefly of sugar; of a plant, containing a large proportion of sugar.
4. With reference to urine, containing sugar in excess of what is normal.
salamandrine: salamanders
1. A reference to salamanders.
2. Any of various small-lizardlike amphibians of the order Caudata, having porous scaleless skin and four rudimentary legs.
3. A mythical creature, generally resembling a lizard, believed capable of living in or withstanding fire; so, being able to resist fire, or to live in it.
saline
1. Salty; pertaining to soil or water rich in soluble salts.
2. Containing or impregnated with salt.
3. In biology, a reference to plants and animals that grow in or inhabit salt plains or marshes.
4. Composed of or like salt.
5. In medicine, a sterile solution of sodium chloride used to dilute medications or for intravenous therapy.
sanguine (SANG gwin) (adjective), more sanguine, most sanguine
1. Confidently optimistic and cheerful: When anyone is sanguine about anything, it means that he or she is hopeful, confident, or cheerfully optimistic about it.

Although many dictionaries indicate that sanguine means "bloody", since it is derived from a Latin origin meaning "bloody" or "full of blood", it is now rare that anyone uses it in that sense any more.

2. Of or pertaining to the red fluid that flows in the body: Sharon was told that her sanguine complexion meant that she had a healthy supply of blood flowing through her veins.

For more historical background information about sanguine, see the article at the bottom of this page.


Ruddy, hopeful, optimistic.
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Confident, ardent, full of vitality.
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The similarity in form between sanguine, "cheerfully optimistic", and sanguinary, "bloodthirsty", may prompt people to wonder how these words have resulted in such different meanings.

The explanation lies in medieval physiology with its notion of the four humors or bodily fluids (blood, bile, phlegm, and black bile). The relative proportions of these fluids was thought to determine a person's temperament.

If blood was the predominant humor, then that person had "a ruddy face and a disposition marked by courage, hope, and a readiness to fall in love".

Such a temperament was called sanguine, the Middle English ancestor of the modern word sanguine. The source of the Middle English word was Old French sanguin, itself from Latin sanguineus.

Both the Old French and Latin words meant "bloody, blood-colored". Latin sanguineus was in turn derived from sanguis, "blood", just as the English "sanguinary" is.

The English adjective sanguine, was first recorded in Middle English before 1350, and it continues to refer to the "cheerfulness" and "optimism" that accompanied a sanguine temperament but it no longer has any direct reference to medieval physiology.

—Compiled from information located in the "Word History" of;
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd edition;
Houghton Mifflin Company; New York; 1996; page 1,598.
sapphirine
Of, relating to, or characteristic of a sapphire; especially the color.
saturnine: melancholy, sullen
Having the temperament of one born under the supposed astrological influence of Saturn; that is, melancholy, sullen, or having the tendency to be bitter or sardonic.
saxicoline (adjective), more saxicoline, most saxicoline
Of, relating to, or characteristic of those creatures, or plants, that grow on or live among rocks.
sciurine: squirrel
1. Like a sciurine rodent or squirrel; of, or pertaining to squirrels.
2. Of, belonging to, or resembling the Sciuridae, a family of rodents that includes the squirrels and related mammals.
scolopendrine: centipedes
Of, relating to, or characteristic of numerous centipedes of the family Scolopendridae, especially the larger ones.
sepaline
Of or belonging to the sepal of a flower.