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Panglossian

 
Dictionary: Pan·gloss·i·an   (păn-glŏs'ē-ən, -glôs'-, păng-) pronunciation
adj.
Blindly or naively optimistic.

[After Pangloss, an optimist in Candide, a satire by Voltaire.]


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Thesaurus: Panglossian
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adjective

    Expecting a favorable outcome or dwelling on hopeful aspects: optimistic, roseate, rose-colored, rosy, sanguine. Informal upbeat. Idioms: looking on the bright side, looking through rose-colored glasses. See hope/despair.

Philosophy Dictionary: panglossian
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Ludicrously optimistic. Dr Pangloss is the character in Voltaire's satire Candide who embodies Leibniz's view that this is the best of all possible worlds.

Obscure Words: panglossian
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[after Pangloss, the absurd, pedantic tutor of (Voltaire's) Candide < pan, all + Gk glossa, tongue]
often capitalized  blindly or naively optimistic
 
 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Philosophy Dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd Read more