| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| pessimism |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | pes·si·mism |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  p s  -m z m |
| NOUN: | 1. A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view: “We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach” (Margo Jones). 2. The doctrine or belief that this is the worst of all possible worlds and that all things ultimately tend toward evil. 3. The doctrine or belief that the evil in the world outweighs the good. | | ETYMOLOGY: | French pessimisme (on the model of French optimisme, optimism), from Latin pessimus, worst. See ped- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | pessi·mist —NOUN
pessi·mistic —ADJECTIVE
pessi·misti·cal·ly —ADVERB
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
