optimist

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from French optimiste,^[2][3][4][5] recorded from 1752.^[2][6] The OED, revising the entry in 2004, instead forms it within English from Latin optimus (“best”) and -ist, and only compares the French word.^[6] It belongs with optimism, whose source optimisme was coined in the Jesuit “Mémoires de Trévoux” of February 1737 as a name for the doctrine of Leibniz,^[6][4][7][2] who in his “Théodicée” (1710) used New Latin optimum (“the greatest good”) as a technical term on the model of maximum and minimum.^[6][7] Voltaire's satire “Candide” (1759) spread the French word widely.^[6][2] Klein explains the Latin adjective as from the base of ops (“wealth”), so that it first meant the richest,^[4] while Ayto suggests ob (“in front of”) with a superlative suffix.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An adherent of the doctrine of optimism: 1759 in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster.^[2][3] The OED, however, first records the general sense, a person who looks on the bright side, in 1766, in the Griffiths' Letters of Henry and Frances.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word started close to philosophy, for one who held Leibniz's doctrine that this is the best of all possible worlds,^[2][7] but the hopeful temperament is recorded almost at once, by 1766.^[2][6] In French the order was the reverse: the doctrine in 1752, the temperament in 1788.^[6] The OED notes that English optimist in the general sense came before the matching sense of optimism,^[6] which Hoad places in the 19th century.^[9] The word also widened to a belief in the final victory of good over evil,^[6] and it has been used as an adjective, "optimistic", since 1860.^[6][10] A capitalised Optimist has been a member of a service club since 1911.^[3]

Timeline

• 1759 – one who holds the doctrine of optimism.^[2][3] The OED first records this sense in 1770.^[6]
• 1766 – a person of a hopeful disposition.^[6][2]
• 1860 – adjective, optimistic.^[6]
• 1911 – Optimist, a member of a service club.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who tends to expect good outcomes and look on the bright side: Only an optimist would plant tomatoes in March.^[11][6][5]
2. A believer in philosophical optimism, especially that good will finally prevail over evil.^[11][6][3]
3. Optimist: a member of an international service club.^[3]

Adjective

1. Marked by optimism; optimistic.^[6][10]

Word family

• optimistic
• optimistically
• antioptimist

Related words

• optimism
• optimal
• optimum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt