the.com/dissenter
The one person in the room willing to be wrong alone.
means Someone who openly refuses to accept an official opinion, decision, or doctrine, especially when everyone else has fallen in line.
from From Latin 'dissentire' — 'dis-' (apart) plus 'sentire' (to feel or think) — literally 'to feel differently.' The same root gives us 'sentiment' and 'sense.' In English the word hardened into a proper noun in the 1500s and 1600s for Protestants who refused to conform to the Church of England — Dissenters with a capital D, who'd rather be fined, jailed, or exiled than feel what they were told to feel.
- origin
- Latin dissentire, to feel differently
- history
- 17th-century English dissenters refused state church doctrine
- irony
- majorities only look wise after dissenters are proven right
- risk
- usually unpopular before being called visionary