Doublespeak

Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning, usually from govermental, military, or corporate institutions.

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.

Successfully introduced doublespeak, over time, becomes part of the general language, shaping the context in which it is used. See below for discussion of classified and unclassified.

In addition, doublespeak may be in the form of bald euphemisms (downsize) or deliberately meaningless phrases (wet work).

What distinguishes doublespeak from other euphemisms is its deliberate usage by govermental, military, or corporate institutions.

Some examples of doublespeak, with etymologies:

• defense: war

As in Department of Defense, formed by the merging of the Department of War and Department of the Navy.

• intelligence: spies or secrets
• human intelligence: spies
• asset (CIA term): foreign spy
• collateral damage: casualties
• neutralize: kill
• freedom fighter: armed political rebel (positive term)
• terrorist: armed political rebel (negative term)
• [homeland defense]?:police state
• wet work: assassination
• pre-hostility: peace
• unsavory character: criminal
• classified: secret

In World War II, secret information was distinguished into classes corresponding to increasing levels of security clearances (more doublespeak there), and came to be called classified information (as in "classified for a particular clearance").

• unclassified: not secret

Information which wasn't secret was then called unclassified, which carries the implication that the natural state of information is to be classified, in other words, to be made secret.

• downsize: fire employees
• job flexibility: lack of job security (where job security means an actual or implied promise of continued employment)
• taxpayer: citizen

The word taxpayer means someone who pays taxes, and when used in a discussion of government revenues is not doublespeak. However, using the term interchangeably with citizen - the military is there to protect the taxpayers - implies that the primary role of a citizen is to pay taxes, or more generally, that the social contract (again, a term with a particular bias) between citizen and state is primarily economic. This usage has become popular in certain conservative and libertarian groups in the United States: c.f. Taxpayers for Common Sense, National Taxpayers Union.

See also propaganda, euphemism, neologism?, Newspeak, political correctness.

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