Consider.

[swan_tower]

A person with sangfroid.

A cold-blooded person.


Same denotation -- but the connotations are so very, very different.

Comments

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Wow, neat!
I was trying to think of the French equivalent and realising that it's 100% the same word for both connotations; it's just a matter of context.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

So in French, it could be construed as either a positive or negative thing? Because it fascinates me that in English, I can't recall seeing sangfroid used negatively, or "cold-blooded" used positively, except in those instances where (say) an author wants you to admire how efficiently a character just murdered somebody. And even then, it isn't really a compliment.

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Well, you can commit a murder "de sang froid", and you can say that someone doesn't lose their "sang froid" easily, so yeah, it's the same words, if not exactly the same expression and the same context.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Neat.

I told kniedzw that obviously the French approve of reptiles and the English do not, but it seems the picture is not so simple. <g>

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

We like ambiguity :)

[mythusmage.livejournal.com]

One mean cool, collected, unflappable. The other means hard, cold. One who has sang froid is in charge, capable. One who is cold blooded is dark, nasty. A man with sang froid can keep his wits about him when everybody else is going off the deep end. The cold blooded man simply doesn't care. One you can rely on, the other you may have to kill.

Understand that I was raised at a time when words and their meanings matter, and we weren't left to flounder around in the wilds of vocabulary all by ourselves. We weren't expected to gain understanding of the words we used by a sudden miracle of revelatory comprehension. Instead we were expected to learn the meaning of words from those who came before.

You have been badly served by your teachers and it shall be generations before the damage they've done is ever repaired.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

You have been badly served by your teachers and it shall be generations before the damage they've done is ever repaired.

I beg your pardon? I am and was entirely aware of the meanings associated with both phrases; I didn't need you to explain them to me. While I might agree with you on the state of education today, your condescension is badly mis-aimed.