Newspeak Dictionary
Newspeak is a fictional language used in Nineteen Eighty-Four by Big Brother and the Party. It is an altered English with restricted vocabulary used as a tool to limit freedom and thought. Newspeak often contradicts itself, some words have two mutually contradicting meanings, so the meaning depends on context. This is a way that the Party controls it's citizens in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Party changes the meanings of words and the citizen has to have total willingness to say black is white if the Party demands. Below are some Newspeak words used in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- Artsem
- Artificial insemination
- Blackwhite
- Believing that black is white, knowing that black is white and forgetting anything of the contrary
- Crimethink
- Criminal thought, monitored by the Thought Police and punished by death (vapourization)
- Dayorder
- Order of the day
- Doublethink
- The ability to have two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind and believe both of them to be true
- Duckspeak
- To speak without thinking
- Facecrime
- Being guilty of thoughtcrime by facial expression
- Goodsex
- Sex considered acceptable by the Party, exclusively used for procreation and with no pleasure for the woman
- Goodthink
- Thought deemed acceptable by the Party
- Issue
- Children created by goodsex
- Malquoted
- Incorrect representation of the Party by the press
- Oldspeak
- Any language used that is not Newspeak
- Oldthink
- Ideas, thoughts and memories from before the Party
- Ownlife
- A citizen being individualistic and solitary. This is regarded as suspicious.
- Sexcrime
- Having sex for pleasure or any other sexual act not deemed acceptable by the Party
- Speakwrite
- An instrument used that writes or types as one speaks
- Telescreen
- A television and/or camera used by the Party to distribute propaganda and watch citizens
- ThinkPol
- Thought Police
- Thoughtcrime
- Thoughts not deemed acceptable by the Party. Monitored by the Thought Police.
- Ungood
- Bad
- Unperson
- A citizen vapourized (killed) by the Party and left with no record of existence
- Vapourized
- Being killed and completely eliminated from existence by the Party