newspeak
UK[ˈnjuːspiːk]US[ˈnuːspiːk]
n
A deliberately ambiguous and misleading language used to control thought, especially by a political system.
Morpheme Breakdown
new
speak
new
recently made or come into being
speak
to speak
Etymology
The word 'newspeak' is a modern English compound, coined by author George Orwell in his 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is formed by combining the common adjective 'new' with the noun 'speak', an archaic or dialectal form for 'speech' or 'language'. The term was created to name a fictional language engineered by a totalitarian state to make dissident thought impossible by restricting vocabulary and twisting meanings. Its logic is intentionally ironic: it labels a language of control and obfuscation as something 'new' and progressive, thereby embodying the very deceptive practice it describes.
Analysis
Structure: new + speak
- new: From Old English 'nīwe', 'nēowe', meaning 'recently made or come into being'. In this compound, it functions as an adjective modifying the nature of the 'speak'.
- speak: From Old English 'specan', a variant of 'sprecan', meaning 'to speak'. In this compound, it functions as the core noun, meaning 'speech' or 'language'.
Examples
The official statements were full of newspeak, making it hard to understand the true situation.
Critics accused the government of using newspeak to reframe the economic crisis as a period of positive adjustment.
The term 'downsizing' is often cited as a classic example of corporate newspeak.