List of Newspeak words

In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, the fictional language Newspeak attempts to eliminate personal thought by restricting the expressiveness of the English language.

In keeping with the principles of Newspeak, all of the words listed here serve as both nouns and verbs; thus, crimethink is both the noun meaning "thoughtcrime" and the verb meaning "to commit thoughtcrime". To form an adjective, one adds the suffix "-ful" (e.g., crimethinkful) and to form an adverb, "-wise" (e.g., crimethinkwise). There are some irregular forms, such as the adjectival forms of Minitrue, Minipax, Miniplenty, and Miniluv (Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Plenty, and Ministry of Love, respectively – all ministries of the active government in Nineteen Eighty-Four).

To say that something or somebody is the best, Newspeak uses doubleplusgood, while the worst would be doubleplusungood (e.g., "Big Brother is doubleplusgood, Emmanuel Goldstein is doubleplusungood").

Bellyfeel

The word bellyfeel means a blind, enthusiastic acceptance of an idea. The word likely comes from the idea that any good Oceanian should be able to internalise Party doctrine to the extent that it becomes a gut instinct – a feeling in the belly.

Consider, for example, such a typical sentence from a Times leading article as "Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc." The shortest rendering one could make of this in Oldspeak would be: "Those whose ideas were formed before the Revolution cannot have a full emotional understanding of the principles of English Socialism." But this is not an adequate translation. ... Only a person thoroughly grounded in Ingsoc could appreciate the full force of the word bellyfeel, which implied a blind, enthusiastic, and casual acceptance difficult to imagine today.

— Orwell, 1984 Appendix

Blackwhite

Blackwhite is defined as follows:

this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink.

— Orwell, 1984

The word is an example of both Newspeak and doublethink. It represents the active process of rewriting the past, control of the past being a vital aspect of the Party's control over the present.

The ability to blindly believe anything, regardless of its absurdity, can have different causes: respect for authority, fear, indoctrination, even critical laziness or gullibility. Orwell's blackwhite refers only to that caused by fear, indoctrination, or repression of one's individual critical thinking ("to know black is white"), rather than caused by laziness or gullibility. A true Party member could automatically, and without thought, expunge any incorrect information and totally replace it with true information from the Party. If properly done, there is no memory or recovery of the Incorrect information that could cause unhappiness to the Party member by committing thoughtcrime. This ability is likened to the total erasure of information only possible in electronic storage.

Crimethink

Crimethink is the Newspeak word for thoughtcrime (thoughts that are unorthodox, or are outside the official government platform), as well as the verb meaning "to commit thoughtcrime". In the appendix is noted that the entire United States Declaration of Independence would be translated into the word crimethink, as an idiomatic translation would turn the document into an essay on the virtues of totalitarian government.

In the book, Winston Smith, the main character, writes in his diary:

Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death.

The antonym of this is goodthink.

Duckspeak

Duckspeak is a Newspeak term meaning literally to quack like a duck or to speak without thinking. Duckspeak can be either good or "ungood" (bad), depending on who is speaking, and whether what they are saying is in following with the ideals of Big Brother. To speak rubbish and lies may be ungood, but to speak rubbish and lies for the good of "The Party" may be good. In the appendix to 1984, Orwell explains:

Ultimately it was hoped to make articulate speech issue from the larynx without involving the higher brain centres at all. This aim was frankly admitted in the Newspeak word duckspeak […]. Like various words in the B vocabulary, duckspeak was ambivalent in meaning. Provided that the opinions which were quacked out were orthodox ones, it implied nothing but praise, and when the Times referred to one of the orators of the Party as a doubleplusgood duckspeaker it was paying a warm and valued compliment.

— Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

An example of a skillful duckspeaker in action is provided in the beginning of chapter 9, in which an Inner Party speaker is haranguing the crowd about the crimes of Eurasia when a note is passed into his hand; he does not stop speaking for a moment, or change his voice or manner, but (according to the changed party line) he now condemns the crimes of Eastasia, which is Oceania's new enemy.

Goodsex and sexcrime

"Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)" redirects here. For the Eurythmics song, see Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) (song).

Goodsex is the normal intercourse between man and wife, for the sole purpose of begetting children and without physical pleasure; all else is sexcrime.[1]

Goodthink

This is approved by the Party. It is the opposite of crimethink.

Ownlife

Ownlife refers to the tendency to enjoy being solitary or individualistic, which is considered subversive. Winston Smith comments that even to go for a walk alone or to sing to oneself can be regarded as suspicious.[2]

Prefixes

Suffixes

Thoughtcrime

Main article: Thoughtcrime

A thoughtcrime is an occurrence or instance of controversial or socially unacceptable thoughts. The term is also used to describe some theological concepts such as disbelief or idolatry,[4] or a rejection of strong social or philosophical principles.[5]

Unperson

A Soviet "nonperson" vanishes: commissar Nikolai Yezhov retouched after falling from favour and being executed in 1940.

An unperson is a person who has been "vaporised"; who has not only been killed by the state, but effectively erased from existence. Such a person would be written out of existing books, photographs, and articles and the original copies destroyed, so that no trace of their existence could be found in the historical record. The idea is that such a person would, according to the principles of doublethink, be forgotten completely (for it would be impossible to provide evidence of their existence), even by close friends and family members. Mentioning his or her name, or even speaking of their past existence, is thoughtcrime; the concept that the person may have existed at one time and has disappeared cannot be expressed in Newspeak. Compare to the Stalinist practice of erasing people from photographs after their execution (see photos, right).

In his 1960 magazine article "Pravda means 'Truth'", reprinted in Expanded Universe, Robert A. Heinlein argued that a supposed cosmonaut who mysteriously disappeared on 15 May 1960 had also received this treatment. The BBC has described journalist Melissa Chan as having become an "unperson" in China, after her expulsion from the country.

Other Newspeak words

(Many of these are in fact merely part of the "abbreviated jargon – not actually Newspeak, but consisting largely of Newspeak words – used in the Ministry for internal purposes", described by Orwell in chapter 4.)

Words incorrectly attributed to Orwell's Newspeak

See also

References

  1. ↑ Appendix, p. 277.
  2. ↑ "there was a word for it in newspeak, ownlife it was called, meaning individualism and eccentricity." – quote from 1984.
  3. ↑ In the appendix of George Orwell's Nineteen eighty-four, end of 8th paragraph.
  4. ↑ Papers in Ethics and Social Philosophy: - Volume 3 - Page 107, David Lewis - 2000
  5. ↑ Evidence, Policy and Practice: Critical Perspectives in Health and Social Care, Jon Glasby - 2011, p 22
  6. ↑ https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=double+talk%2Cdoubletalk%2Cdouble-talk&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdouble%20talk%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdoubletalk%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdouble%20-%20talk%3B%2Cc0

External links

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