yeasayer
yeasayer Lexical Profile
yeasayer Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person who habitually approaches life, new ideas, or proposals with an affirmative, positive, and enthusiastic attitude.
"As a natural yeasayer, she was always the first to volunteer for experimental community projects."
A person who uncritically agrees with every opinion or directive of a person in authority; a sycophant.
"The chief executive surrounded himself with compliant yeasayers rather than advisors who would challenge his risky strategy."
Word Nuance & Usage
'Yeasayer' can be used positively to describe a confident optimist, or pejoratively to describe an uncritical sycophant who agrees with everything a superior says.
• Rhymes for yeasayer
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the late 19th century from 'yea' (an archaic affirmative meaning 'yes'), 'say', and the agent suffix '-er', partly as a calque of Friedrich Nietzsche's German term 'Jasager' ('one who says yes to life').