Dictionary

Pollyannaish en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree English Pollyanna Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-isk Old English -isċ Middle English -isch English -ish English Pollyannaish From Pollyanna + -ish.

Meanings

1. (derogatory) Unreasonably optimistic.
   • On this basis, Bridle argues, it’s possible to conceive of a new kind of “guardianship” of our frazzled planet and its poisoned wells, one in which we all work together. This seems Pollyanna-ish as much as Panglossian to me […] 2018 June 30, Will Self, “New Dark Age by James Bridle review – technology and the end of the future”, in The Guardian:
   • Accordingly the objection “Is not optimalism simply too Pollyanna-ish to be plausible?” can be met effectively. 2000 June, Nicholas Rescher, “Optimalism and Axiological Metaphysics”, in The Review of Metaphysics, LIII, № 4, § iii, page 819:
   • Even long before this choice of character of the year was made, critics were complaining about the [Chinese] government’s Pollyannaish touting of mèng 梦, saying that the dreams of most people were in vain. 2012 December 25, Victor Mair, “Chinese character of the year: mèng 梦 (‘dream’)”, in Language Log:
   • If that sounds a little bit Pollyannaish, it’s because Schmidhuber’s own experience[…]must have taught him that competition can create losers as well as winners. 2017 April 18, Philip Oltermann, “Jürgen Schmidhuber on the robot future: ‘They will pay as much attention to us as we do to ants'”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms

Deriveds

Pollyannaishly

Synonyms

Panglossian

Translations (2)

de Milchmädchen- (unreasonably optimistic) · es demasiado optimista (unreasonably optimistic)