Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Deliberately ambiguous and contradictory language used to mislead and manipulate the public.
Wiktionary
- n. A mode of talk by politicians and officials using ambiguous words to deceive the listener.
WordNet 3.0
- n. deliberately ambiguous and contradictory language use to mislead and manipulate the public
Etymologies
- From Newspeak, a language invented by George Orwell in the novel 1984.
Examples
“Orwell coined the word newspeak, meaning common words having uncommon meaning.”
Deane Waldman: July 4th Gift: Freedom from Newspeak, Scotoma, & Rose-Colored Glasses
“Whereas the first article is just written in newspeak, yet coherent, the 2nd one is a mess …”
Two Articles on Georgia Crisis Well Worth Reading « Antiwar.com Blog
“Although I am almost certain newspeak for that stance is “support our troops”, and “collateral damage” …”
“Most of all, we have the language -- the "newspeak" -- Orwell predicted.”
“In its aid policy in Ethiopia, the U.S. seems to be more interested in generating "newspeak" and photo ops than producing the right results good governance.”
The Huffington Post: Alemayehu G. Mariam: Reflections on Thanksgiving in America
“Such is the "newspeak", the glossy, rose-colored narrative, of the U.S. aid bureaucracy.”
The Huffington Post: Alemayehu G. Mariam: Reflections on Thanksgiving in America
“Another Orwellian "newspeak" conclusion is that "the international community has been largely silent" about alleged Israeli abuses in the Gaza and the West Bank.”
Alan Dershowitz: UN Investigation of Israel Discredits Itself and Undercuts Human Rights
“In announcing the funding cut, Inouye's press release was a remarkable illustration of Orwellian "newspeak," ostensibly supporting the very opposite of what he was doing:”
“The MSM just repeat each others "newspeak" equivalent over and over again, until everyone is stupid.”
“This Orwellian "newspeak" is possibly the most alarming of all the extrusions from the enemy as, the further they distance themselves from the reality of what is democracy, the more they prattle about bringing democracy to their construct.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘newspeak’.
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Interpreters' Speak
team sheet, pivot language, team leader, mini-plenary, plenary week, mission order, AIC colleague, SCIC, mission, mike, adding a new lang..., language booth and 499 more...
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Conlangs and Fantasy Languages
Names of constructed languages (excluding Tolkien's, which get a list of their own) and languages presented only in works of fiction. I'm going to be flexible about what gets listed and include bot...
esperanto, volapük, idiom neutral, latino sine flexione, ido, occidental, interlingue, interlingua, novial, glosa, adjuvilo, afrihili and 223 more...
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Peri-odd-icals
To complement reesetee's list of strange book titles, here we collect interesting magazine titles. Nicknames (if in reasonably widespread use) are permitted, because Wrist-Slitters' Monthly deserve...
wrist-slitters' m..., sheep!, potato review, australian goat w..., public hygiene qu..., hair growers news, fancy fowl, international car..., vacuum cleaner co..., fish friers review, semen world, global slag magazine and 94 more...
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Speak or bespoken
speak, spoke, spoken, bespoke, speak up, spoken for, spokesperson, outspoken, loudspeaker, unspeakable, spokesfish, spokescat and 26 more...
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Nineteen Eighty-four
memory hole, newspeak, doublethink, room 101, doubleplus, ungood, thoughtcrime, thought police, ingsoc, big brother, fullwise, duckspeak and 19 more...
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Ready, set, guess this language...
Maly i mala hulali po polu i pili kakao.
erewhonian, betazoid, rohirric, vogon love poetry, enochian, ewokian, polish, wakese, glossolalia, maledicta, freedomese, igpay atinlay and 16 more...
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These words are about words.
words on words. yyep.
codex, folio, lexicon, tome, word stock, wordbook, wordlist, palaver, word index, argot, parlance, doublespeak and 68 more...
reesetee Sometimes I actually wonder. Jan 24, 2008
uselessness Too true. Humans would be a lot better off without human nature, wouldn't they? Jan 24, 2008
reesetee I'm going to guess that it's because those who read and appreciate the message aren't necessarily those who are causing the Orwellian messes--or because those who are causing the Orwellian messes don't think it's them. Ah, human nature. *said sarcastically* Jan 24, 2008
treeseed That, my dear uselessness, is the question of the hour. Jan 24, 2008
uselessness George Orwell is a hero of mine. I'm always baffled by how everyone seems to know his work, and agree that it's a valuable warning for the future, and yet we continue to spiral into even greater Orwellian messes. How does that happen? Jan 24, 2008
sonofgroucho Newspeak was a brilliant concept. So much of what Orwell predicted seems familiar to me living in a 21st century so-called democracy. Jan 24, 2008
treeseed Term coined by George Orwell in his dystopian novel 1984 Jan 24, 2008