Pessimism

Definitions: Pessimism

Pessimism

Noun

1. The feeling that things will turn out badly.

2. A general disposition to look on the dark side and to expect the worst in all things.

Date "pessimism" was first used: 1794 from French "pessimisme" (by Coleridge). (references)

Etymology: Pessimism \Pes"si*mism\, noun. [Latin expression pessimus worst, superl. of pejor worse: compare to the French expression pessimisme. Compare to Impair.]. (Websters 1913)

Specialty Definitions: Pessimism

Domain	Definitions
Satire	PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. Source: Devil's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Synonym: Pessimism

Synonym: Gloominess. (additional references)

Antonym: optimism (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Pessimism

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Dejection	Melancholy; sadness; Adjective: il penseroso, melancholia, dismals, blues, lachrymals, mumps, dumps, blue devils, doldrums; vapors, megrims, spleen, horrors, hypochondriasis, pessimism; la maladie sans maladie; despondency, slough of Despond; disconsolateness; Adjective: hope deferred, blank despondency; voiceless woe.
Hopelessness	Noun: hopelessness; Adjective: despair, desperation; despondency, depression; (dejection); pessimism, pessimist; Job's comforter; bird of bad omen, bird of ill omen.
Overestimation	Noun: overestimation; Verb: exaggeration; vanity; optimism, pessimism, pessimist. much cry and little wool, much ado about nothing; storm in a teacup, tempest in a teacup; fine talking.
Underestimation	Noun: underestimation; depreciation; (detraction); pessimism, pessimist; undervaluing; Verb: modesty.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Pessimism

English words defined with "pessimism": pessimistically, Pessimize. (references)

Specialty definitions using "pessimism": Pessimism. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Pessimism" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Swedish (pessimism).

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Modern Usage: Pessimism

Domain	Usage
Clever	Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerve give to wisdom. (references; author: Mark Twain)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Pessimism

Domain	Title
Books	Cultural Pessimism (reference) Gramsci and Contemporary Politics : Beyond Pessimism of the Intellect (reference) My Cosmic Pessimism (reference) Pessimism and British War Policy 1914-1918 (Cass Series--British Politics and Society) (reference) The Poisoned Embrace: A Brief History of Sexual Pessimism (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Pessimism

Author	Quotation
John Kenneth Galbraith	We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Pessimism

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		A century of pessimism about the capacity for regeneration in the brain and spinal cord is now giving way to guarded optimism. (references)
Economic History	New Zealand	Also, NZ companies and consumers have been hard-pressed by the rising costs of imported oil; higher interest rates have increased debt repayments for both business firms and households; retail sales volumes have been reduced; and, the resultant lack of confidence and pessimism have lessened new investment of capital as well as the recruitment of additional employees. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Speeches: Pessimism

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Harry S. Truman	1945-1953	We must base our policies not on unreasoning optimism or pessimism but upon a candid recognition of our objectives and upon a careful analysis of foreseeable trends.
George Bush	1989-1993	I do think there has been too much pessimism.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Pessimism

"Pessimism" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Pessimism" is used about 185 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	185	22,646

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Pessimism

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
pessimism	21
optimism pessimism	8
optimism vs pessimism	3
pessimism quote	3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Pessimism

Language		Translations for "pessimism"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		pesimizëm. (various references)

Arabic		‏تشاؤم (black looks), ‏التشاؤمية. (various references)

Bulgarian		песимизъм. (various references)

Chinese		悲观 (Pessimistic, Pessimistical). (various references)

Czech		pesimismus. (various references)

Dutch		zwaartillendheid, pessimisme. (various references)

Esperanto		pesimismo. (various references)

Faeroese		svartskygni. (various references)

Farsi		فلسفه بدبینی , صفت بد, بدی مطلق , بدبینی . (various references)

French		pessimisme. (various references)

German		Pessismismus, Pessimismus (gloominess). (various references)

Greek		απαισιοδοξία. (various references)

Hungarian		pesszimizmus, borúlátás. (various references)

Italian		pessimismo. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		鬱鬱 (gloominess, melancholy), 鬱々 (gloominess, melancholy), 厭世観 (pessimistic view of life), 厭世主義 , 厭世 (weariness with life), ペガスス座 (black plague, Pegasus, Pekingology, pessimist, pessimistic), 悲観論 , 悲観 (disappointment). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ペシミズム , ひかんろん, ひかん (disappointment, removal from office, wintering), うつうつ (gloominess, melancholy), えんせいしゅぎ, えんせいかん (pessimistic view of life), えんせい (away series, campaign, complaint, expedition, leaden, made of lead, malleability, murmur, tour, weariness with life). (various references)

Korean		염세 사상. (various references)

Manx		doo-aigney. (various references)

Papiamen		pesimismo. (various references)

Pig Latin		essimismpay

Portuguese		pessimismo (gloom, pessimist), pessário (pessary, pessulum, pessum, ring pessary). (various references)

Romanian		pesimism. (various references)

Russian		пессимизм. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		pesimizam. (various references)

Spanish		pesimismo (gloom, gloominess, low spirits). (various references)

Swedish		pessimism, svartsyn. (various references)

Turkish		pesimizm, karamsarlık, kötümserlik. (various references)

Ukranian		песимізм. (various references)

Vietnamese		tính yếm thế, chủ nghĩa bi quan tính bi quan. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Pessimism

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	pessimus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Pessimism

Derivations
	Words beginning with "pessimism": pessimisms. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Pessimism" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pescimism, pesimism, pessimis, pessimisim, pessimislm, pessimiss, pessimisum, Pessoais, Psimhis. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Pessimism"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "pessimism" (pronounced pe"sumi'zum)
6	-u m i' z u m	animism, dynamism, euphemism, optimism, overoptimism.
5	-m i' z u m	extremism.
4	-i' z u m	abolitionism, absenteeism, absolutism, activism, adventurism, agrarianism, alcoholism, altruism, amateurism, anachronism, aneurism, antagonism, aphorism, astigmatism, atavism, atheism, authoritarianism, autism, baptism, barbarism, bilingualism, bolshevism, boosterism, botulism, cannibalism, capitalism, catechism, centralism, chauvinism, classicism, collectivism, colonialism, commercialism, communism, conservatism, consumerism, corporatism, counterterrorism, creationism, criticism, cronyism, cubism, cynicism, dandyism, defeatism, deism, despotism, determinism, diamagnetism, diastrophism, dimorphism, dogmatism, Druidism, dualism, dwarfism, egalitarianism, egoism, egotism, electromagnetism, elitism, embolism, emotionalism, empiricism, entrepreneurialism, environmentalism, ergotism, eroticism, escapism, ethnocentrism, evangelism, expansionism, expressionism, factionalism, fanaticism, fascism, fatalism, favoritism, federalism, feminism, ferromagnetism, fetishism, feudalism, formalism, fundamentalism, futurism, geotropism, gnosticism, gradualism, hedonism, helotism, heroism, hooliganism, humanism, hypnotism, idealism, illusionism, imperialism, impressionism, incrementalism, individualism, intellectualism, internationalism, interventionism, Irredentism, isolationism, isomorphism, jingoism, journalism, leftism, legalism, lesbianism, liberalism, lyricism, magnetism, mannerism, masochism, materialism, mechanism, mercantilism, mesmerism, metabolism, methodism, microorganism, militarism, minimalism, modernism, monasticism, monetarism, monism, monotheism, moralism, multiculturalism, multilateralism, mutualism, mysticism, narcissism, nationalism, nativism, naturalism, negativism, nepotism, neutralism, nihilism, obstructionism, opportunism, organism, ostracism, pacifism, paganism, parallelism, parkinsonism, parochialism, pastoralism, paternalism, patriotism, perfectionism, pharisaism, pietism, plagiarism, pluralism, polymorphism, polytheism, populism, positivism, pragmatism, professionalism, protectionism, provincialism, puritanism, racialism, racism, radicalism, realism, recidivism, relativism, republicanism, revisionism, rheumatism, romanticism, sadism, satanism, sectarianism, secularism, sensationalism, separatism, sexism, skepticism, socialism, statism, stoicism, supernaturalism, surrealism, symbolism, synergism, territorialism, terrorism, theism, tokenism, totalitarianism, tourism, truism, unionism, vandalism, vegetarianism, vigilantism, voluntarism, volunteerism, voyeurism.
3	-z u m	bosom, careerism, chasm, cytoplasm, enthusiasm, iconoclasm, ism, microcosm, neoplasm, orgasm, phantasm, prism, sarcasm, schism, spasm.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Pessimism

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-i-i-m-m-p-s-s-s"
	-1 letter: seismism.
	-2 letters: mimesis, missies.
	-3 letters: immies, isseis, misses, missis, pisses, seisms, sepsis, speiss.
	-4 letters: impis, issei, mimes, mises, seism, semis, simps, sipes, sises, spies.
	-5 letters: impi, imps, isms, mems, mess, mime, mise, miss, pies, piss, psis, seis, semi, simp, sims, sipe, sips.
	Words containing the letters "e-i-i-m-m-p-s-s-s"
	+1 letter: pessimisms.
	+2 letters: misemphasis.
	+4 letters: impressionism, misemphasizes, misimpression.
	+5 letters: impressionisms, misimpressions.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.