How to describe this character?

[Mehrgan]

Hi all,

In the cartoon series Gulliver's Travels there was a character who was very pessimistic about everything. Is there any adjective to describe such people?!


Thanks a lot.

[freezeframe]

Hi all,

In the cartoon series Gulliver's Travels there was a character who was very pessimistic about everything. Is there any adjective to describe such people?!


Thanks a lot.

Depends on the context.

Pessimist, defeatist, complainer, party pooper, killjoy, grouch, whiner, downer... etc.

Or as I prefer to call it, a realist.




Side note

I like this saying: "A pessimist is an optimist with experience" (don't know the source)

[Mehrgan]

Thanks a lot!

I've also heard,
'A pessimist is a married optimist!', and,
'An optimist is a person who thinks a fly is looking for a way to get out of the room!'



Cheers!

[freezeframe]

A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is one who hopes they are. (Chauncey Depew)

[5jj]

An optimist is someone who posts a response in this forum and believes that the OP will not spend hours trawling the net to 'prove' the response wrong.

[Mehrgan]

Hi there,

Have I ever done so?! If so I really do apologise. It must've been a misunderstanding, because I've always been thankful to the dear posters.


Thank you again, and hope I wasn't addressed in that post.


Cheers!

[Mehrgan]

Depends on the context.

Pessimist, defeatist, complainer, party pooper, killjoy, grouch, whiner, downer... etc.

Or as I prefer to call it, a realist.




Side note

I like this saying: "A pessimist is an optimist with experience" (don't know the source)

Thanks. Regarding the word "Whine", is it the case that "Whinge" is more common in BrE?

[Raymott]

Thanks. Regarding the word "Whine", is it the case that "Whinge" is more common in BrE?

'Whinge' and 'whine' mean the same to me. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between a person who was whingeing and one who was whining.

In fact they are apparently derived from the same word: "From Middle English whinsen, from Old English hwinsian (“to whine”)"
whinge - Wiktionary

[Mehrgan]

'Whinge' and 'whine' mean the same to me. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between a person who was whingeing and one who was whining.

In fact they are apparently derived from the same word: "From Middle English whinsen, from Old English hwinsian (“to whine”)"
whinge - Wiktionary

So many thanks. Is that spelling the same in AmE? (I mean keeping tha final e in whinge while adding -ing. Because once I heard this is a preference in BrE.)


Ta!

[TheParser]

So many thanks. Is that spelling the same in AmE? (I mean keeping tha final e in whinge while adding -ing. Because once I heard this is a preference in BrE.)


Ta!

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) Whenever you write for Americans, do please spell it

as "whining." I think that most Americans would consider the

other spelling as strange and might not even recognize the word

until they considered the context.