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Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning, usually from govermental, military, or corporate institutions. |
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Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning, usually from governmental, military, or corporate institutions. |
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The word doublespeak was coined in the early 50ies of the 20th century. It is often incorrectly attributed to George Orwell and his antiutopical novel 1984. The word actually never appears in that novel; Orwell did, however, coin Newspeak, Oldspeak and doublethink, and his novel made fashionable composite nouns with speak as the second element, which were previously unknown in English. It was therefore just a matter of time before someone came up with doublespeak. |
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The word doublespeak was coined in the early 1950s. It is often incorrectly attributed to George Orwell and his dystopian novel 1984. The word actually never appears in that novel; Orwell did, however, coin Newspeak, Oldspeak and doublethink, and his novel made fashionable composite nouns with speak as the second element, which were previously unknown in English. It was therefore just a matter of time before someone came up with doublespeak. Doublespeak may be considered, in Orwell's lexicography, as the B vocabulary of Newspeak, words "deliberately constructed for political purposes: words, that is to say, which not only had in every case a political implication, but were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them." |
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In addition, doublespeak may be in the form of bald euphemisms (downsize) or deliberately meaningless phrases (wet work). |
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In addition, doublespeak may be in the form of bald euphemisms ("downsizing" for "firing of many emplyees") or deliberately meaningless phrases ("wet work" for "assassination"). The process of abbreviating names or forming acronyms to form new words, which arose during the World War and Cold War governments and corporate institutions, is now pervasive (eg Microsoft from "Microcomputer Software" and Wikipedia from "Wiki Encyclopedia"). Whereas in the early days of the practice it was considered wrong to construct words to disguise meaning, this is now an accepted and established practice. There is a thriving industry in constructing words without explicit meaning but with particular connotations for new products or companies. For example, in 1978 Esso (itself a neologism from the acronym for "Standard Oil") changed to Exxon, a name chosen in large part for its graphic properties. See also jargon?, neologism?. |
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* Nazi, Gestapo, Comintern?, Inprecor?, Agitprop? :abbreviations which disguise the meaning of the origin words, namely ** Nationalsozialismus (National Socialism) ** Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police) ** Communist International ** International Press Correspondence ** Agitatsiya Propaganda (Agitational Propaganda) |
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See also propaganda, euphemism, neologism?, Newspeak, political correctness. |
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See also propaganda, euphemism, neologism?, Newspeak, political correctness, Noam Chomsky. |
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