doublespeak
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English
Etymology
double + -speak. Coined in the 1950s in the vein of George Orwell's Newspeak as used in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word doublespeak does not appear in the book, although newspeak, oldspeak, and doublethink do.
Noun
doublespeak (uncountable)
- Any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity.
- Synonym: double talk
- The report was riddled with so much corporate doublespeak that it was impossible to interpret.
- 1976, Brent D. Ruben, “The Coming of the Information Age”, in Brent D. Ruben, editor, Information and Behavior, page 7:
- The popular and convergent use of information seems to represent something beyond the mere cosmetics of doublespeak, of a "garbage collector" turned "sanitary engineer" or a "strike" turned "work stoppage."
Translations
language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
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