- pessimism
- 1794 "worst condition possible," borrowed (by Coleridge) from Fr. pessimisme, formed (on model of Fr. optimisme) from L. pessimus "worst," originally "bottom-most," from PIE *ped-samo-, superl. of base *pes- "foot" (see foot). As a name given to the doctrines of Schopenhauer, Hartmann, etc., that this is the worst possible world, or that everything tends toward evil, it is first recorded 1878, from Ger. pessimismus (Schopenhauer, 1819).