pessimism
pronunciation
How to pronounce pessimism in British English:
UK [ˈpesɪmɪzəm]
How to pronounce pessimism in American English:
US [ˈpesɪmɪzəm]
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- Noun:
- the feeling that things will turn out badly
- a general disposition to look on the dark side and to expect the worst in all things
Word Origin
- pessimism
- pessimism: [18] The first English writer on record as using pessimism was the poet Coleridge, in the 1790s. But he employed it for the ‘worst possible state’. The modern sense ‘expecting the worst’ did not emerge until the early 19th century. The word was probably coined first in French, and was based on Latin pessimus ‘worst’.
- pessimism (n.)
- 1794 "worst condition possible," borrowed (by Coleridge) from French pessimisme, formed (on model of French optimisme) from Latin pessimus "worst," originally "bottom-most," from PIE *ped-samo-, superlative of root *pes- "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)). As a name given to the doctrines of Schopenhauer, Hartmann, etc., that this is the worst possible world, or that everything tends toward evil, it is first recorded 1835, from German pessimismus (Schopenhauer, 1819). The attempt to make a verb of it as pessimize (1862) did not succeed.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Pessimism about the firm 's prospects deepened , too .
- 2. Yet there are reasons for pessimism .
- 3. The japanese say they suffer from an economic disease called " structural pessimism " .
- 4. This reflects extreme pessimism about the global economy .
- 5. We are settling into a dangerous national pessimism .