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Glite Dictionary
dismal science

dismal science

1 8.1
A study of how people use money and goods, often focusing on not having enough and hardship
  • noun
  • /ˈdɪzməl ˈsaɪəns/
  • Literature
translation icon : ciencia sombría
  • The dismal science of the economics of aggregates—capital, labor, and land—will give way to a microeconomics of liberty.
  • the dismal science of economics

So This is why economics is called the dismal science.

Examples

  • You can also put in economics, often called the dismal science, right?

  • Ah yes, the dismal science, well at least as the Keysians and econometricians are concerned.

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  • It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a "dismal science."

    Blog text (32)

  • McK is seen as a credible authority because he has a PhD in Economics and does econometrics, which I suppose is the closest the dismal science of economics can get to real science, although even then one thinks of spurious correlations.

    Blog text (13)

  • Economics, often referred to as the dismal science, studies the impacts of scarcity on society.

  • The phrase dismal science reflects the often bleak predictions that economists make about the economy.

  • Many people view economics as the dismal science because it deals with hard truths about resources and limitations.

Antonyms

rosy perspective
6.1

A view that is too positive and ignores problems

Surface Forms

dismal science singular
dismal sciences plural

Morphology

dismal + science

The adjective-noun composition 'dismal' (gloomy) + 'science' (field of study) lets a learner infer a general meaning — a gloomy or depressing field — from the constituents. However, the conventionalized, specific reference to economics as 'the dismal science' is culturally specific and not fully predictable from the words alone, so comprehension is only partial.

Etymology

Dismal science comes from a remark in the 1800s when a writer called economics 'dismal' because it often gave gloomy answers about scarcity and poverty. That image—dismal meaning 'gloomy' and science meaning a careful study—explains why we still use dismal science for the part of economics that focuses on hard facts and limits today.