duckspeak

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word duckspeak. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word duckspeak, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say duckspeak in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word duckspeak you have here. The definition of the word duckspeak will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofduckspeak, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

duck +‎ speak, coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Noun

duckspeak (uncountable)

  1. Thoughtless or formulaic speech.
    • 1989, Richard Rorty, Contingency, irony, and solidarity:
      Because his utterances detour through his brain - rather than, as in duckspeak, coming straight from the well-programmed larynx - he has Socratic doubts...
    • 2004, Joan Elizabeth Lloyd, Club Fantasy:
      I think you might just have had the courage to realize things I didn't know were there. That's really duckspeak, isn't it. I only thought I was happy.
    • 2006, Stephen Ingle, The social and political thought of George Orwell:
      They have developed a particularly obnoxious form of ungood duckspeak. 'Friendly fire' and 'collateral damage' are only the most obvious examples...
    • 2008, Richard J Alexander, Framing Discourse on the Environment: A Critical Discourse Approach:
      To be sure, he provides very many juicy examples of such duckspeak or bullshit...

Translations