pessimism

Etymology

Etymonline, Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary give it as borrowed from French pessimisme,^[2][3][4] formed on the model of optimisme (“optimism”),^[2][5][4] from Latin pessimus (“worst”) and the French suffix -isme.^[5] Ayto also thinks the word was probably coined first in French.^[6] The revised OED instead treats it as formed from Latin pessimus and the suffix -ism, after optimism, and notes that French pessimisme is recorded from 1759 and German Pessimismus from 1776.^[7] The Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Hoad likewise derive it from the Latin word on the pattern of optimism.^[8][9][10] The Latin adjective serves as the superlative of malus (“bad”),^[11][12] and Klein relates it to pējor (“worse”), the source of pejorative.^[13][5] Etymonline derives it from Proto-Indo-European *ped-samo-, a superlative form of *ped- (“to walk, stumble, impair”), from the root meaning "foot", so that it perhaps first meant "bottom-most", and compares pessum (“downward, to the ground”).^[2] Barnhart likewise links it, more cautiously, with the root for "foot".^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The worst condition possible, the state of greatest deterioration: 1794, in a letter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge of 17 December.^[7][5][2] Klein and Weekley also name Coleridge as the first to use the word.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Coleridge used the word in contrast to optimism, for the worst possible state, and this meaning lasted until about the 1840s.^[7][6] The modern sense, a tendency to expect the worst or to see the dark side of things, is recorded from 1815, in the Quarterly Review,^[7][2][6] and Merriam-Webster dates the main modern meaning to the same year.^[15] As a name for the philosophical doctrine that this is the worst of all possible worlds, or that everything tends towards evil, it followed German Pessimismus as Schopenhauer used it from 1819;^[2][7] the OED's first English quotation of this sense is from 1854, in a translation of Victor Cousin,^[7] and Etymonline finds it by 1835.^[2] The related pessimist is recorded from 1836 and pessimistic from 1868,^[5] and an attempt to make a verb, pessimize (1862), did not catch on.^[2]

Timeline

• 1794 – the worst possible condition, in Coleridge (obsolete after the 1840s).^[7][5]
• 1815 – a tendency to look at the worst side of things.^[7][2][15]
• 1854 – the philosophical doctrine that this is the worst of all possible worlds.^[7] Etymonline dates this sense in English to 1835.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tendency to expect the worst outcome and to dwell on the bad side of things; the opposite of optimism: Her pessimism about the harvest proved unfounded.^[11][16][17]
2. (philosophy) The doctrine that this is the worst of all possible worlds, or that everything tends towards evil.^[7][17][11]
3. (philosophy) The belief that evil in life outweighs good, or that worldly existence is only a preparation for another one.^[11][17][13]
4. (obsolete, 1794–1844) The worst possible state or degree.^[7][16][8]

Word family

• pessimist
• pessimistic
• pessimistically
• overpessimism

Related words

• optimism
• pejorative
• impair
• pessimum

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin