| 释义 |
Orwellian, a.|ɔːˈwɛlɪən|
[f. the name of ‘George Orwell’, the nom-de-plume of the English writer Eric Blair (1903–50) + -ian.]
Characteristic or suggestive of the writings of ‘George Orwell’, esp. in his satirical novel 1984 which portrays a form of totalitarian state seen by him as arising naturally out of the political circumstances of his time. Hence as n., an admirer of the ideas of Orwell.
So Orˈwellianism, ˈOrwellism.
1950M. McCarthy On Contrary (1962) 187 A leap into the Orwellian future. 1952Time 1 Sept. 19/2 Under the new rules, the Politburo and the Orgburo will be merged and the two ugly Orwellian names replaced by the stern old Latin ‘Presidium’. 1958Times 20 Feb. 11/3 In Orwellian language, ‘imperious’. 1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 309 Virtually perfect Orwellian ambivalences—(War is Peace, Love is Hate, Ignorance is Knowledge). 1961[see Huxleyan, Huxleian a. b]. 1963Observer 3 Nov. 33/1 There is an Orwellian grimness about the naming of the Abolition of Passes Act in South Africa, which ensured that an African had to carry 27 papers combined into one booklet. 1967Listener 2 Nov. 583/2 It is Orwellianism transferred to the world of the commercial, in which machines work beautifully, everybody is on a kind of holiday and wears a blazer and a redcoat number, the daily flavour of the ice-cream is announced on the morning radio, [etc.]. 1970Guardian 30 Nov. 11/2 His election night insistence that the blood on his face was nothing less than the blush of victory can now be seen as a triumph of public relations.., an interesting example of the progress of Orwellism in national politics. 1971Ibid. 14 Jan. 7/1 McLuhanites and Orwellians are likely to block our view of their masters' arguments. 1972Ibid. 17 Feb. 14/5 The Orwellian Newspeak style. 1974Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 20 Sept. 27/4 One sees a future Robin Day as an Orwellian Official Moderator of the Ministry of Received Truth. 1976Time 5 Apr. 22/2 In foreign affairs, says Moynihan, there is something almost Orwellian about the transformation of the word liberal to mean the opposite of what it meant a decade or so ago. |