fatalist
noun/ˈfeɪtəlɪst/
Etymology From fatal + -ist.
1
One who maintains that all things happen by inevitable necessity; a person who believes in fatalism.
- ....it is that, with every day, my love for you increases—though that would seem to be almost an impossibility. Why should I not become a fatalist? Remember how, on the third day that we ascended the Shlangenberg, I was moved to whisper in your ear: 'Say but the word, and I will leap into the abyss.' Had you said it, I should have leapt. Do you not believe me?"1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter V, in The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(1867)/V):
- “Maybe the problem is that you’re a romantic,” says my former lover-slash-friend-slash-male-sensitivity-reader. “And maybe so are the other fatalists.”2025 July 21, Jean Garnett, “The Trouble With Wanting Men”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2025:
1 more example
- [Nick] Bostrom, the philosopher, expressed a sort of resignation about the AI future when we spoke. He used to call himself a “fretful optimist,” he said, but now he’s a “moderate fatalist.”2026 April 3, Matteo Wong, Lila Shroff, “Silicon Valley Is in a Frenzy Over Bots That Build Themselves”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- Related terms
- fatalism, fatalistic, fatalistically