Dictionary

declinist en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /dɪˈklaɪnɪst/ (UK)

Etymology

From decline + -ist.

Meanings

1. Believing in or tending towards declinism.
   • As our first declinist candidate for president, Donald J Trump did at least express something new and true about the nature of our country. 2016 November 14, Tom Engelhardt, “Through the gates of hell: Trump as America's first declinist president”, in The Guardian:
   • Against a background of almost paralytic gloom and declinist talk, Vienna tried to take on Napoleon, breifly bhecked him at Aspern-Essling and then went down to absolute defeat at Wagram […]. 2013, Simon Winder, Danubia, Picador, published 2014, page 301:

Forms

declinist en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /dɪˈklaɪnɪst/ (UK)

Etymology

From decline + -ist.

Meanings

1. A subscriber to declinism.
   • Rather than accept this, declinists often explained things that did not happen, with explanations that did not work, based on bad history. Thus declinists insist that British R&D has always been low, the City always over-mighty, the country always in the grip of empire, the state under the imaginative control of classicists and historians rather than technocrats, that industry never stood a chance. 2022 June 12, David Edgerton, “Yes, we’re in a bad way. But to wallow in myths of British ‘declinism’ won’t help us thrive”, in The Guardian:

Forms

Hypernyms

pessimist