sangfroid

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The Word of the Day for May 16 is:

sangfroid   \SAHN-FRWAH (the vowel in the first syllable is 
pronounced nasally without any following consonant)\   noun
     : self-possession or imperturbability especially under 
strain 

Example sentence:
     Harry thought he would be a jittery, stumbling mess on the 
day of his presentation, but instead surprised himself and 
impressed others with his sangfroid.

Did you know? 
     If you're a lizard, "cold-blooded" means your body 
temperature is strongly influenced by your environment. If 
you're an English-speaking human, it means you are callous and 
unfeeling. If you're a French speaker, it means that you're 
calm, cool, and collected in stressful situations. By the mid-
1700s, English speakers were already using "cold-blooded" (that 
term has been around since the late 1500s), but they must have 
liked the more positive spin the French put on having "cold 
blood" because they borrowed the French "sang-froid" 
(literally, "cold blood") for someone who is imperturbable under 
strain. The French term, by the way, developed from the Latin 
words "sanguis" ("blood") and "frigidus" ("cold").