This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
brewstered
hoover
cookie monster
marplot
Panglossian


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Next week’s theme
Words coined after fairy tales and folktales

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(pan-GLOS-ee-uhn)

MEANING:

adjective: Blindly or unreasonably optimistic.
noun: One who is optimistic regardless of the circumstances.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Dr. Pangloss, a philosopher and tutor in Voltaire’s 1759 satire Candide. Pangloss believes that, in spite of what happens -- shipwreck, earthquake, hanging, flogging, and more -- “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” The name is coined from Greek panglossia (talkativeness). Earliest documented use: 1831. The word pangloss is used in the same manner.

USAGE:

“The clueless desert viceroys ... misled reporters with their Panglossian scenarios of progress.”
Maureen Dowd; Neocons Slither Back; The New York Times; Sep 15, 2012.

See more usage examples of panglossian in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: