Entry: Panglossian (adj.)
In context: "'How does somebody with your kind of Panglossian constitution determine whenever you're ever being lied to, I sometimes wonder, Booboo.'"
Definition: Of, relating to, or characteristic of a Pangloss; unwaveringly or unrealistically optimistic.
Other: Pangloss (n.): A person resembling Voltaire's character Pangloss, esp. one who is optimistic regardless of the circumstances. Also Doctor Pangloss.
Etymology: < the name of Dr Pangloss (French Panglosse), the philosopher and tutor in Voltaire's Candide (1759) who believes that ‘all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds’.
SNOOT score: 3
Page: 772
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
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