A person who is excessively optimistic or naively hopeful; someone who believes everything will turn out well no matter what.
From the 1913 children's novel 'Pollyanna' by Eleanor Porter, whose heroine was an extremely optimistic girl. The name became a term for this personality type.
It's wild that a children's book character became so famous that her name entered the English dictionary as a common noun—'Pollyanna' is one of the rare examples where a fictional character's name became a regular word people use to describe a personality type.
Pollyanna (1913 character by Eleanor Porter) became a gendered slur for naive optimism, feminized as a flaw. The term conflates a specific female character's fictional naïveté with a character flaw attributed to women broadly—'just like a woman to be unrealistic.'
Avoid. Use 'optimistic,' 'unrealistically hopeful,' or 'wishful thinking' instead. If referencing the character, specify.
["overly optimistic","unrealistically hopeful","wishful thinking","naïve idealism"]
Eleanor Porter created Pollyanna as a deliberate subversion (the character's optimism solves real problems); the term's later pejorative use distorted the author's intent and weaponized female optimism.
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