pessimist

[pes-uh-mist]

noun

1. a person who habitually sees or anticipates the worst or is disposed to be gloomy.

2. an adherent of the doctrine of pessimism.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pessimist¹

First recorded in 1830–40; pessim(ism) + -ist

Example Sentences

A year of dating in L.A. turned me into a pessimist, so I tried not to count all the ways this could go wrong — like, what if he doesn’t show up?

From Los Angeles Times

“Although I’m famous as a pessimist, I really haven’t been pessimistic,” Davis told me in 2022, the last time we saw each other, months before he died of esophageal cancer at 76.

From Los Angeles Times

In addition, my friend told me that in 1930s Germany, there was a saying that the pessimists went to New York and London, and the optimists went to Auschwitz.

From Salon

Today, pessimists say the battle is over and lost.

From BBC

But taken together, his auctioned personal items revealed another side of Chandler: a man who, unlike the tough guys of his fiction or the pessimist of his nonfiction, was playful and tender.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• cynic 
• worrier