different between improve vs meliorism

English

Alternative forms

• emprove (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprouwer, from Old French en- + prou (“profit”), from Vulgar Latin prode (“advantageous, profitable”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?p?u?v/
• Rhymes: -u?v

Verb

improve (third-person singular simple present improves, present participle improving, simple past and past participle improved)

1. (transitive) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
2. (intransitive) To become better.

   • “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

3. (obsolete) To disprove or make void; to refute.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve.

4. (obsolete) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.

5. (dated) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Reward of Honouring God (sermon)

     We shall especially honour God, by discharging faithfully those offices which God hath entrusted us with: by improving diligently those talents which God hath committed to us

   • a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved

   • the court has also an opportunity, which it seldom fails to improve.

   • 1715, Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief

     How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.

   • March 7, 1778, George Washington, letter

     True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.

Synonyms

• (to make something better): ameliorate, better, batten, enhance; See also Thesaurus:improve

Antonyms

• (to make something worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:aggravate
• (to become worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:worsen

Derived terms

• improvement
• improver
• improving

Translations

Further reading

• "improve" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 160.

English

Etymology

From Latin melior (“better”) +? -ism. Reportedly coined by British author George Eliot in her letters, published in 1877.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mi?l????z(?)m/

Noun

meliorism (countable and uncountable, plural meliorisms)

1. The view or doctrine that the world can be improved through human effort (often understood as an intermediate outlook between optimism and pessimism). [from 19th c.]
   • 1966 May 6, "Forever Beginning," Time:

     At the convention, the official mood was traditional Methodist meliorism.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, page 371:

     Enclaves of meritocratic and virtuous sociability, the lodges exuded […] a thoroughgoing meliorism.

Derived terms

• meliorist
• melioristic
• melioristically

Translations

References

• “meliorism” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "meliorism" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006)
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Dictionary of Philosophy, Dagobert D. Runes (editor), Philosophical Library, 1962; see: "Meliorism" by Archie J. Bahm, page 195

Romanian

Etymology

From French méliorisme

Noun

meliorism n (uncountable)

1. meliorism

Declension