Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A nonperson.
Wiktionary
- n. A human who has been stripped of rights, identity or humanity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person regarded as nonexistent and having no rights; a person whose existence is systematically ignored (especially for ideological or political reasons)
Etymologies
- un- + person. From the synthetic language "newspeak" in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), where it refers to a person who has not only been executed but whose entire history has been erased. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“In Orwell's term, Cortés has become an "unperson" -- not "nonperson," as the word is so frequently misquoted.”
“Also her videotape on being an "unperson" ought to be required viewing, even for staff who don't work specifically with autistic people.”
“After all, he is immediately demoted from his prestigious status level six to being an "unperson", the automatic status of someone who has no identity cards, no birth certificate and, in fact, no recorded history.”
“Thanks for the update, I was directed to read her after I did a post on care workers treating me without dignity and saw her video on being an "unperson" and have gone back several times to learn different ways in which to explain a point of contact.”
“Newspeak - including such lasting terms as "unperson,”
“And how often do you get a chance to hear a journalist who is fired from the newspaper he helped start and who became an instant "unperson" at that paper?”
“There, a one-time colleague, Trotsky, could virtually disappear from the story of the Revolution and become an 'unperson' for an entire generation of young Russians.”
“I imagine that St. Andrew has become a liability to the "vaccines-cause-autism" crowd and will soon find himself an "unperson".”
“October 17, 2008 - Joe the Plumber declared "unperson" by the media.”
“Last time I checked, George Bush (through the power of the Executive to wage war) had taken an American citizen into custody on American soil, declared him an "enemy combatant" (or more properly, an "unperson") who did not have any rights under the law, and argued that the President had the ability to do so, because the United States itself was a front in the Struggle Against Violent Extremism (formerly known as the War on Terror*).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘unperson’.
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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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Politrix
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
vexillology, blowback, impunity, extraterritoriality, plenipotentiary, filibuster, pundit, jingoistic, gerrymander, swiftboat, espionage, ipsedixitism and 151 more...
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Extinguishish
A list of managed departures.
jettison, demolition, clearance, chucking, disposal, defenestration, remove, exile, excommunicate, eradicate, banish, deport and 114 more...
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Newspeak
Found in George Orwell's 1984
newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime, crimethink, ingsoc, goodthink, bellyfeel, prole, ungood, duckspeak, goodsex, ownlife and 6 more...
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Copycatalyst's Words
infinitsmally, stimmyied, cannablissed, copycatalyst, hollowgram, xeroxian, nihilion, scion, exacerbate, stymied, eschew, cauterized and 140 more...
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Neologisms
This list's members include all the words I suspect marked an original use or new term when I heard or read them.
dipsomancy, dramaturgy, duckspeak, doublethink, crimethink, ungood, unperson
Tweets
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