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optimism

 - 5 dictionary results

op⋅ti⋅mism

  [op-tuh-miz-uhm]
Use optimism in a Sentence
–noun
1. a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.
2. the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world.
3. the belief that goodness pervades reality.
4. the doctrine that the existing world is the best of all possible worlds.
Origin:
1730–40; < F optimisme < L optim(um) (see optimum ) + F -isme -ism

Synonyms:
1. confidence, hopefulness, cheerfulness.

Antonyms:
1, 2. pessimism, cynicism.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To optimism
op·ti·mism   (ŏp'tə-mĭz'əm)   
n.  

  1. A tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation: "There is a touch of optimism in every worry about one's own moral cleanliness" (Victoria Ocampo).

  2. Philosophy

    1. The doctrine, asserted by Leibniz, that this world is the best of all possible worlds.

    2. The belief that the universe is improving and that good will ultimately triumph over evil.


[French optimisme, from New Latin optimum, the greatest good; see optimum.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

optimism 
1782, from Fr. optimisme (1737), from Mod.L. optimum, used by Leibnitz (in Théodicée, 1710) to mean "the greatest good," from L. optimus "the best" (see optimum). The doctrine holds that the actual world is the "best of all possible worlds," in which the creator accomplishes the most good at the cost of the least evil.
"En termes de l'art, il l'appelle la raison du meilleur ou plus savamment encore, et Theologiquement autant que Géométriquement, le systême de l'Optimum, ou l'Optimisme." [Mémoires de Trévoux, Feb. 1737]
Launched out of philosophical jargon and into currency by Voltaire's satire on it in "Candide." General sense of "belief that good ultimately will prevail in the world" first attested 1841 in Emerson; meaning "tendency to take a hopeful view of things" first recorded 1819 in Shelley. Optimist is 1766, from Fr. optimiste; Optimistic is first attested 1848.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: op·ti·mism
Pronunciation: 'äp-t&-"miz-&m
Function: noun
: an inclination to put the most favorable construction uponactions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome —op·ti·mist /-m&st/ noun —op·ti·mis·tic /"äp-t&-'mis-tik/ adjective
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Computing Dictionary

optimism
What a programmer is full of after fixing the last bug and just before actually discovering the *next* last bug. Fred Brooks's book "The Mythical Man-Month" contains the following paragraph that describes this extremely well.
All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy god-mothers. Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal. Perhaps it is merely that computers are young, programmers are younger, and the young are always optimists. But however the selection process works, the result is indisputable: "This time it will surely run," or "I just found the last bug.".
See also Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology.
[The Jargon File]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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