pessimist
noun/ˈpɛsɪmɪst/
Etymology From French pessimiste, from Latin pessimus (“worst”) + -ist.
1
Someone who habitually expects the worst outcome; one who looks on the dark side of things.
- I will not marry a pessimist, a born loser, a fellow who has no fight in him.1940 September 29, “Letters Reveal Ordeals in France”, in The New York Times, page 12:
- We are becoming as a nation, as a world, indeed, atom-conscious. Many of us are already afflicted with atomphobia, though so far it has manifested itself only in a mirage of autoaeromotive discs and a war of words between chronic optimists and empirical pessimists concerning civilization’s probable future.1947 September 27, Richard R. Werry, “An American Beginning for International Education”, in School and Society, volume 66, number 1709, Lancaster, Pa.: The Society for the Advancement of Education, Inc., page 238:
- Derived terms
- Afropessimist, cyberpessimist, heteropessimist, pessoptimist, technopessimist
- Related terms
- pessimism, pessimistic