meliorist antedated to 1834

[Stephen Goranson]

OED's word of the day is meliorism. For meliorist OED has 1846.

He did not profess to be, if he might use the word, a pessimist, nor was he ever an optimist; but he might fairly hope, through the means of their valuable institution, to be a meliorist.

The Legal Observer [London] 9. (Dec 27, 1934) p. 168 col. 2
http://books.google.com/books?id=AgUvAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA168&dq=meliorist&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1Kw0UvyuL43O9ASW84GgBA&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=meliorist&f=false

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

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