noun
pessimism
PEH-sih-mih-zuhm
noun
1
A general tendency to expect the worst outcome or to focus on the negative.
"His pessimism made it hard for him to enjoy even good news."
"There's growing pessimism about the housing market."
How to Use Pessimism
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishExpecting things to go badly — the opposite of optimism.
Easily confused with
Common pairings
growing pessimism
a sense of pessimism
economic pessimism
Word Forms
pessimisms plural
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Etymology
From French pessimisme, ultimately from Latin pessimus ("worst"). The philosophical sense was popularized by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in the early 1800s.