| "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" |
| From George Orwell's satirical fable Animal Farm (1945). The animals on Mr. Jones' farm stage a revolution against their human masters and drive them out. The pigs under their leader Napoleon,take over. Corrupted by power, they in turn become tyrannical and rationalize their hegemony with the above slogan. Used cynically or satirically to demolish the hypocrisy of claims to absolute equality in the face of a priviliged elite. |
| Double think: Another coinage of British author George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), double think , as the author explained in his novel, meant "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." |
| "Big Brother is watching you:" Big Brother has come to mean a dictator or a dictatorship, a person or a political system that controls people's minds and lives so that there is nothing private and personal anymore. The reference ofcourse, is to the character Big Brother in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-four (1949) |
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| George Orwell, through his books, has contributed many words and phrases to the English language. Here are some that I have collected and tried to explain: |
| newspeak: In George Orwell's novel 1984 (1949), newspeak is the reduced and simplified language designed to impoverish thought and ultimately to cripple the mind that the people can accept totalitarian rule. "Newspeak" has come to mean any kind of doubletalk. |
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