Wiktionary

doomsayer

English edit

WOTD – 19 December 2012, 19 December 2014

Etymology edit

doom +‎ sayer

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈduːmˌseɪ.ə/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈdumˌseɪ.ɚ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Noun edit

doomsayer (plural doomsayers)

  1. One who makes dire predictions about the future; one who predicts doom.
    • 1970, Frank Herbert, New world or no world, page 141:
      Even from the doomsayers you hear reflections of hope. Nobody wants "it" to happen. In his darkest moments, man is aware that, while he may be limited, humankind need not be.
    • 1983, John R. Gribbin, Stephen H. Plagemann, Beyond the Jupiter effect, page 76:
      4: THE DOOMSAYERS¶ So many people have written so many books and articles forecasting doom at the end of the twentieth century that we cannot possibly do credit to all of them here.
    • 2020 December 31, Lauren Jackson, “News That Can Last a Million Years”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      He is not a doomsayer or a conspiracy theorist. A ceramist, Mr. Kunze simply inhabits a longer view of history, one in which humans are the dinosaurs, facing down a probable extinction.
    • 2023 November 25, Richard Waters, John Thornhill, “Tech's philosophical rift over AI”, in FT Weekend, Big Read, page 6:
      Critics of the doomsayers, meanwhile, are becoming more outspoken.

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