Gradgrind
nounEtymology From Thomas Gradgrind, a pedantic teacher in Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1854).
1
One who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration.
- They do just what all the practical men of this practical age are doing, what even the Gradgrinds are doing: they embody ideas; they put thoughts into facts.1860 June, “Representative Art”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 5, number 32:
- “I was purring. I'm a Gradgrind—it's quite right—anything you can say about Herbert Spencer, vivisectors, materialistic Science or Atheists, applies without correction to me. […]”1905, H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia:
1 more example
- He was a veritable Gradgrind for facts, facts, facts.1916, Arthur B. Reeve, The Ear in the Wall:
- Derived terms
- Gradgrindery, Gradgrindian, Gradgrindish, Gradgrindism