Thomas Carlyle was born on this date in 1795. A passionate historian, and fallen-away Calvinist, the Scottish-born writer influenced movements as diverse as existentialism, transcendentalism, socialism and fascism. He believed in heroes and literature, work and thought. (来源：英语学习门户网站EnglishCN.com)

What he did not believe in—or to be fair, what he did not trust in—was democracy, which he considered pie-in-the sky, or, to quote the man who dubbed economics a "dismal science, a self-canceling business…[which] gives, in the long run, a net result of zero."

Thomas Carlyle also coined a term which hasn't lasted but whose meaning has reappeared again and again, authored by other writers: gigman. A gigman is a fellow who pays all respect to, and prides himself on, respectability. A gig is a "light, two-wheeled, one horse carriage." Carlyle took his term from a story of a court witness who described a person as "respectable," only to be asked by the judge what he meant by the word. "A man who keeps a gig" was the answer.

We'll pass along two of our favorite latter-day gigman kin and invite you to send along any you think of. Sinclair Lewis gave us Babbit, "a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards;" H.L. Mencken coined booboisie, a blend of boob plus bourgeoisie, used for "the general public regarded as consisting of boobs."