A.Word.A.Day --micawber

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Jul 1, 2011

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micawber

Mr Micawber

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

micawber

PRONUNCIATION:

(mih-KAW-buhr)

MEANING:

noun: An eternal optimist.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Wilkins Micawber, an incurable optimist in the novel David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens. Earliest documented example of the word used allusively: 1852.

USAGE:

"As the shadow work-and-pensions secretary, David Willetts, said yesterday, he takes the Mr Micawber approach to economics: something will turn up."
Larry Elliott; Mr Micawber May Find Result Misery; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 4, 2004.

See more usage examples of micawber in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

A neurosis is a secret that you don't know you're keeping. -Kenneth Tynan, critic and writer (1927-1980)

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