miserabilist

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Variant of miserable +‎ -ist, with interconsonant -i- added due to difficulty or lack of flow in pronouncing miserablist.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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miserabilist (plural miserabilists)

  1. One who is unhappy, or extols being miserable as a virtue; a philosopher of pessimism.
    Synonyms: buzzkill, killjoy, spoilsport; see also Thesaurus:spoilsport
    • 1991, Anthony Powell, Under review: further writings on writers, 1946-1989, page 242:
      Gissing is never more of a miserabilist than when trying to be light-hearted.
    • 2006, Iain Sinclair, London: city of disappearances, page 314:
      An old, failed actor who lived on his own, he never had friends dropping by, because he was a bedridden inconsiderate miserabilist.
    • 2009 February 7, Lucy Mangan, “Lucy Mangan: This week”, in The Guardian[1]:
      The former Smiths singer, professional miserabilist, vegetarian and gladioli-distributor has posed nude for the inner sleeve artwork for his new single, Heaven Knows I'm Naked Now.
    • 2021 November 21, Oliver Milman, quoting Catherine Fieschi, “Climate denial is waning on the right. What’s replacing it might be just as scary”, in The Guardian[2]:
      She said center-right French politicians have started disparaging climate activists as “miserabilists”, []

Usage notes

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Also appears as variant miserablist (without interconsonantal -i-), but this latter is less common; likewise miserabilism (with -i-) is more common than miserablism (without -i-).

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Translations

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Adjective

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miserabilist (comparative more miserabilist, superlative most miserabilist)

  1. Miserable, pessimistic.
    • 2014, Doru Pop, Romanian New Wave Cinema: An Introduction, McFarland, →ISBN, page 61:
      This is a radical difference between the naturalism of the miserabilist approach, and the naturalism practiced by the Romanian New Wave.