pessimism
/ˈpɛsɪmɪzəm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.97 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Bourgeois novels were full of pessimism, their authors had sold out to capitalism and their heroes were mostly thieves, prostitutes, spies, and hooligans."
- "T2 isn’t as good as T1: it is a little too long and unwinds a bit into caper sentimentality, broad comedy and self-mythologising. But it has the same punchy energy, the same defiant pessimism, and there’s nothing around like it. This sequel was a high-wire act, but Boyle has made it to the other side."
Etymology
From French pessimisme, from Latin pessimus (“worst”) + -ism, superlative of malus (“bad”). As a doctrine, from German Pessimismus as used by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in 1819.