Definition
Economics or the field of political economy.
Origins
Coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1849, a play on gay science (“poetry”).
In Context
- "[N]ot a "gay science," but a rueful—which finds the secret of this universe in "supply and demand" . . . a dreary, desolate and, indeed, quite abject and distressing one; what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science."
- "Galbraith has managed to write with wit and style about the ‘dismal science’ of economics."
- "Two Dismal Sciences: Economics and National Security—Writing during World War II, J. B. Condliffe lamented, "Economists have not contributed in very large measure to the recent outpouring of publications on the causes, conduct, and consequences of war." By the turn of the millennium, however, the situation had changed."