Word of the Day : October 4, 2020

meliorism \MEE-lee-uh-riz-um\ noun

Definition

: the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment

Did You Know?

In 1877, British novelist George Eliot believed she had coined meliorist when she wrote, "I don't know that I ever heard anybody use the word 'meliorist' except myself." Her contemporaries credited her with coining both meliorist and meliorism, and one of her letters contains an early documented use of meliorism; however, there is evidence that meliorist had been around decades before she started using it. Whoever coined it did so by drawing on the Latin melior, meaning "better." It is likely that the English coinages were also influenced by another melior descendant, meliorate, a synonym of ameliorate ("to make better or more tolerable") that was introduced to English in the 1500s.

Aired October 4, 2020

All Merriam-Webster content is available at www.merriam-webster.com