411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Pangloss
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
From Dr. Pangloss, a character in Voltaire's Candide.
Noun
A naively or unreasonably optimistic person.
en 1797 July w:Samuel Taylor Coleridge LXXIV. To Robert Southey w:Ernest Hartley Coleridge Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge I Boston and New York w:Houghton, Mifflin and Company 224 1895 https://archive.org/details/bwb_T2-EYP-882/page/224/mode/1up I am as much a Pangloss as ever, only less contemptuous than I used to be, when I argue how unwise it is to feel contempt for anything.
Related terms
en Panglossian
en Panglossianism
en Panglossic
en eponyms