Oldspeak
(ˈəʊldspiːk)
[f. old a. + speak v.]
The name used for Standard English, as opposed to the artificial language Newspeak, in G. Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, applied to normal English usage, spec. as distinct from technical or propagandist language. Hence Oldspeaker, one who uses Oldspeak.
| 1949 ‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-Four i. 54 You haven't a real appreciation of Newspeak... Even when you write it you're still thinking in Oldspeak. Ibid. 299 It was expected that Newspeak would have finally superseded Oldspeak (or Standard English, as we should call it) by about the year 2050. 1960 Encounter Nov. 10/1 The substitution of ‘Newspeak’ for ‘Oldspeak’ (or present-day English) is designed to effect nothing less than the destruction of human reason by linguistic means. 1974 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 20 Sept. 10/3 Sometimes they say that ‘real’ freedom, being quite different from the crude concept mistakenly used by Oldspeakers, can exist only in a socialist state. |