Micawbers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term referring to individuals who display unflagging optimism despite facing financial hardship or adversity
2. Describing people who, like the character Micawber from Dickens, remain hopeful and perseverant in the face of struggle
3. Characterizing those who believe in the possibility of better fortunes, often naively so amid ongoing difficulties

Etymology: Wilkins Micawber is the perpetually broke but relentlessly cheerful debtor in Dickens's "David Copperfield" (1850), who keeps insisting that "something will turn up." Readers took his name as a common noun, and "micawber" now means a person of that temperament, so "micawbers" is simply its plural.