pessimism
[pes-uh-miz-uh m]
- the tendency to see, anticipate, or emphasize only bad or undesirable outcomes, results, conditions, problems, etc.: His pessimism about the future of our country depresses me.
- the doctrine that the existing world is the worst of all possible worlds, or that all things naturally tend to evil.
- the belief that the evil and pain in the world are not compensated for by goodness and happiness.
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Origin of pessimism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
gloommelancholysadnessgriefdistrustdespairhopelessnesscynicismunhappinessglumnessdejectiondespondencydepressiongloominessdyspepsiaExamples from the Web for pessimism
Contemporary Examples
My pessimism leads me to fight harder, or try to understand how I can do it differently.
This pessimism—for all the discussion on campuses about “white privilege”—is even more deeply seated among young whites.
This pessimism is particularly intense among white working class voters, and large sections of the middle class.
But the comment is a sign of the pessimism spreading through the ranks of the security forces.
This pessimism may be the most realistic view of the climate crisis.
Historical Examples
His pessimism about his play caused him to exaggerate the enormity of his offences.
The Foolish LoversSt. John G. Ervine
He was acquainted with that more or less literary form of pessimism.
FruitfulnessEmile Zola
Away, for the time, went Jed's pessimism and his hopeless musings.
ShavingsJoseph C. Lincoln
In other words, she may have married Mr. Jackson in a fit of pessimism.
Audrey CravenMay Sinclair
His disbelief and his pessimism were identical in their structure.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, CompleteAlbert Bigelow Paine
pessimism
- the tendency to expect the worst and see the worst in all things
- the doctrine of the ultimate triumph of evil over good
- the doctrine that this world is corrupt and that man's sojourn in it is a preparation for some other existence
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Word Origin
C18: from Latin pessimus worst, from malus bad
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for 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" (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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper