Etymology From Middle English domere, from Old English dōmere (“judge”), equivalent to doom + -er. The more recent sense was popularized via a meme, “30 Year-Old Boomer” (first posted in April 2018), the derivations of which are other words that end in -oomer, describing various personality types.
1
A doom-and-gloomer; a pessimist.
I am not normally a pessimist, not by nature one of the doomers of this world whereas Cashem seems to be getting worse and worse. What did he mean by ‘attempt’?2004, Barbara Anderson, Change of Heart, Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 132:
I soon found out it was a common belief among doomers, or people who believe a global catastrophe will happen within the next few years.2015 January 31, Dylan Evans, “I quit my job to set up a post-apocalyptic commune”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
2
One who believes that petroleum depletion will inevitably lead to a severe recession or depression, followed by a Malthusian catastrophe.
Those who suggest the likely return of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (famine, pestilence, war, and death) are more vocal than ever before despite being labeled Malthusian or just "doomer."2009, David Holmgren, Future Scenarios, Chelsea Green:
There is an ever louder babble of apocalypse-predicting subcultures, amplified and partly sustained by the internet: peak-oil doomers, who believe the world's energy supplies will collapse and mass famine will follow; […].2011 December 18, Andy Beckett, “The news is terrible. Is the world really doomed?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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[…] while a Minnesotan in her early thirties summed up the general influence of apocalyptic popular culture: “I think it has made me more of a doomer. […]2015, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture, page 114:
3
Capitalized, Neologism, Sometimes Someone who is apathetic or has a negative prospect towards the world.
Doomers, meanwhile, are the nihilistic cousins of “Bloomers” and “Gloomers,” all three gradients of the same 20-something. Whereas Bloomers are well adjusted and Gloomers are depressed because they are not, Doomers have simply stopped trying. They are no longer pursuing friendships or relationships, and get no joy from anything because they know that the world is coming to an end.2020 February 3, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “The Misogynistic Joke That Became a Goth-Meme Fairy Tale”, in The Atlantic:
Tim Joung, a 20-year-old student in New York, agrees with almost everything that so-called doomers believe: individual action makes little difference, and unscrupulous corporations are at fault for climate change.2020 September 21, Alexandra Villarreal, “Meet the doomers: why some young US voters have given up hope on climate”, in The Guardian:
4
A techno-pessimist, in particular concerning artificial intelligence.
To this day, some doomers work on the inside, nudging the big A.I. labs toward caution, and some work on the outside, arguing that the big A.I. labs should not exist.2024 March 18, Andrew Marantz, “О.К., Doomer”, in The New Yorker, page 47:
Today [Eliezer] Yudkowsky is regarded as a leader of the “doomers”, a faction whose members believe that superintelligent AI will be unambiguously bad for humanity and perhaps even cause our extinction.2025 March 5, J. Oliver Conroy, “They wanted to save us from a dark AI future. Then six people were killed”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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It was a rare issue in which the interests of Doomers, Boomers, and profit-motivated corporates aligned: Keeping frontier models front and center in government regulatory discussions was ideologically imperative to Doomers and convenient to Boomers and corporates for shifting attention away from regulating existing AI models and their problems.2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN:
She added, perhaps to the chagrin of the AI doomers in the crowd: “This is not a trial on the safety risks of artificial intelligence.”2026 May 9, Dara Kerr, “What I saw at the Musk-OpenAI trial: petty billionaires, protests and a stern judge”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
5
Archaic, Rare One who, or that which, dooms, or pronounces a sentence; a judge.
Are not the heavens doomers of men's deedes?1590, T[homas] L[odge], Rosalynde. Euphues Golden Legacie: […], London: […] Thomas Orwin for T. G[ubbin] and John Busbie, →OCLC; republished [Glasgow]: [ […] Hunterian Club], [1876], →OCLC:
That fatal look of a common intelligence, of a common assent, was exchanged among the doomers of the prisoner's life and death, as the judge concluded.1869, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Prose Works:
Doomers, ranging from children to senior citizens, are up all night hunting specters, imps, and other hellspawn, battling each other in so-called Deathmatch tournaments, and checking out the latest Doom lore by conversing with the game’s developers over computer chat lines. […] What’s ahead for Doomers? Id has authorized a company called Austin Virtual Gaming to license an eight-screen Doom arcade setup around the country.1994, BusinessWeek, page 16:
I am not a female Doomer, but I did "catch" my fiance playing Doom the other day. It led us to a discussion of why ID didn't put the option in to choose a female character.1994 April 30, Ricardo Lopez, “Are there any *female* doomers out there?”, in alt.games.doom (Usenet):
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The sense of reality is so seamless that on the Internet, where many Doomers gather, there is a FAQ (frequently asked questions) document that talks about Doom-induced motion sickness. […] At one point, Carnegie Mellon University’s 25,000-user network had so many student Doomers playing that the system nearly ground to a halt.1994 September 23, Robert S. Cauthorn, “‘Doom’s Day’: Oct. 10 is release date for sequel to wildly popular game”, in The Arizona Daily Star, volume 153, number 264, Tucson, Ariz., section E, page twelve:
#doom This channel is a cousin of #vidgames […] And some players use it to find others who have the Internet Head-to-Head Daemon (IHHD) software, which lets folks play Doom over the Net. (Note: Some “Doomers” may want to try finding the #modemdoom channel if #doom is not active for some reason.)1995, Donald Rose, Internet Chat Quick Tour: Real-time Conversations & Communications Online, Ventana Press, →ISBN, page 119:
On the downside, they’ve created such indelible demons and Death match tournaments that Doomers of all ages have reported actual perception changes.1996, Faith Popcorn, Lys Marigold, Clicking: 16 Trends to Future Fit Your Life, Your Work, and Your Business, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 86:
By intentionally leaving cracks in his source code, [John] Carmack encouraged Doomers to hack the game and create their own elaborate levels — new battlegrounds upon which the carnage took place.1999, The New York Times Biographical Service, page 786: