Etymologically
Log in

optimism

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 00:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɒptɪmɪzəm/[1]
  • US: /ˈɑptɪmɪzəm/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French optimisme,[2][3][4][5] coined in 1737 in the Jesuit journal “Mémoires de Trévoux” as a name for the doctrine of Leibniz.[2][3][6][7] In his “Théodicée” (1710) Leibniz had used New Latin optimum (“the greatest good”) as a technical term, on the model of maximum and minimum.[2][7][3] The Latin word is the neuter of Latin optimus (“best”), which serves as the superlative of bonus (“good”);[8][9] the suffix is -isme, English -ism.[2][9] Merriam-Webster relates optimus to ops (“power, wealth, help”), the source of opulent,[9] while Ayto suggests that it may have been formed from ob (“in front of”) and a superlative suffix.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The philosophical doctrine, set out by Leibniz, that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds: 1759, in a letter of Bishop William Warburton,[2][11] the same year as the English translations of Voltaire's Candide.[3][9] Barnhart records the English spelling Optimisme from 1759 and Optimism from 1782.[7]

Semantic evolution

The word passed out of philosophical jargon into general use through Voltaire's satire of the doctrine, Candide ou l'optimisme (1759).[2][3][7][6] In English it was soon widened to any view that good will finally prevail over evil in the world, recorded from 1841 in Emerson.[2][3] The everyday sense, hopefulness and confidence about the future, appears in 1812 in Maria Edgeworth's The Absentee,[2][11] though Etymonline and Barnhart date it from Shelley in 1819;[3][7] French had that sense from 1788, and the English noun optimist was already used for a hopeful person.[2] By the early 19th century, says the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, the general sense had become current.[12] Southey briefly used the word for the quality of being for the best, or perfection (1795–1821), a sense now obsolete.[2][11] The opposite term, pessimism, was also coined in the 18th century.[12]

Timeline

  • 1737 – French optimisme, in the “Mémoires de Trévoux”.[2][3]
  • 1759 – the doctrine of Leibniz that this is the best of all possible worlds.[2][9]
  • 1795 – the quality of being for the best (obsolete by 1821).[2]
  • 1812 – hopefulness and confidence about the future.[2]
  • 1819 – the tendency to look on the bright side, in Shelley.[3][7]
  • 1841 – belief in the ultimate triumph of good over evil, in Emerson.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tendency to expect the best outcome and to look at the most hopeful side of things: Despite the delays, the team's optimism never faded.[4][13][2]
  2. Hopefulness or confidence about the future or about the success of something.[13][2]
  3. (philosophy) The doctrine, set out by Leibniz, that this world is the best of all possible worlds.[4][13][9][2]
  4. (philosophy) The belief that good will finally triumph over evil, or that the universe is improving.[4][13][2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins