Pessimists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who tend to see the worst aspect of things and expect unfavorable outcomes
2. people characterized by a lack of hope and belief in positive results
3. those who consistently anticipate difficulties or negative situations in life

Etymology: "Pessimists" is the plural of "pessimist", and the noun is built from the Latin superlative "pessimus", meaning "worst". Its origin is an inflected English form of a word that came in from French, so the story belongs to the base noun. The Latin adjective "malus" ("bad") had the superlative "pessimus" ("worst"), and French took that superlative and attached "-iste", a suffix for a person who holds a belief or follows a doctrine. A "pessimiste" was therefore someone committed to the view that things are at their worst. English adopted the word from French, and the plural simply adds "-s" to the English noun. The -ist ending matches other "believer" words such as "optimist", formed on the same pattern from Latin "optimus" ("best"), so the two terms were built as a matched pair.

Synonyms: cynics, defeatists, doomsayers, killjoys, nihilists

Antonyms: optimists, idealists, believers, hopefuls, positivists