Gradgrind 的詞源

"冷酷、事實爲主的人"，源自狄更斯1854年的小說《硬時代》中的學校董事會主席和工廠主的名字：

THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir - peremptorily Thomas - Thomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple arithmetic. ....

In such terms Mr. Gradgrind always mentally introduced himself, whether to his private circle of acquaintance, or to the public in general. In such terms, no doubt, substituting the words 'boys and girls,' for 'sir,' Thomas Gradgrind now presented Thomas Gradgrind to the little pitchers before him, who were to be filled so full of facts.

Indeed, as he eagerly sparkled at them from the cellarage before mentioned, he seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. He seemed a galvanizing apparatus, too, charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away. 

“托馬斯·格拉德格林德，先生。一個現實主義者。一個事實和計算的人。一個遵循兩加二等於四，沒有多餘的東西，不會被談話說服的人。托馬斯·格拉德格林德，先生——堅決的托馬斯——托馬斯·格拉德格林德。他隨身帶着尺子和秤，還有乘法表，隨時準備稱量和測量任何一小部分人性，並告訴你它的確切含義。這只是一個數字問題，一個簡單的算術問題。....

無論是在他的私人社交圈子中，還是在公衆面前，格拉德格林德先生總是以這樣的方式自我介紹。毫無疑問，現在他用“男孩和女孩”代替“先生”，向他面前的小孩子們介紹托馬斯·格拉德格林德。

事實上，當他從上述地窖裏熱情地望着他們時，他似乎是一種裝滿事實的大炮，準備在一次發射中將他們從童年的世界中徹底摧毀。他似乎也是一種充滿了冷酷機械替代品的電鍍設備，用於攻擊那些嬌嫩的年輕想象力。