The Newspeak Dictionary

I'm in the middle of reading George Orwell's classic 1984 for the first time, and I'm seriously intrigued by the idea of language that's designed primarily to rid the English language of original thought. Everything that can possibly be said can be said using a number of suffixes, prefixes and modifiers in the fictional Newspeak language. For instance, if something is good, it's simply "good". There are no alternatives. If something is great, it's "plusgood", indicating a slightly elevated level of enthusiasm. If something is excellent or spectacular, it's "doubleplusgood". It's not specifically mentioned, but I think it's safe to say that "doubleplusgood" is about as twice as great as "plusgood". The worst possible descriptor is, of course, "doubleplusungood". Also, any word can be turned into an adverb simply adding the suffix "-wise" while any word can be turned into a adjective by adding "-ful". This presumably leads to such confusing sentences as "I'm fullwise doubleplusthirstful" meaning "I'm really thirsty". It can get a little hard to read sometimes. One of the more interesting concepts is that of the "unperson", a phrase used when someone is not only killed by the state, but effectively erased from history. What's creepy about it is that it actually happened in the Soviet regime. Here's a picture of Uncle Joe "I Killed More People Than Hitler" Stalin standing next to Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov, a senior figure in the Soviet Police (1984 parallel: Thinkpol), and then a picture that could be found later after Yezhov fell from grace.

Old-school Photoshoppin'. So anyway, here's The Newspeak Dictionary, which not only lists and describes Newspeak from the book and movie but also what the proprietor of the site considers to be real-life Newspeak used by politicians and the media. It can get a little critical of those of you who may be politically correct, so it's best just to read the 1984 stuff. Also, if you haven't read the book, you can here.