Orwellian: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Orwellian describes a situation or idea based on the ideas of George Orwell particularly his political novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It usually refers to one of the following:

• Efforts to monitor people's social behaviour
• A dystopian future
• Political doublethink

The first is probably the most common and is often used to describe negatively a situation in which a Big Brother-like authority figure and thought police can, supposedly, constantly monitor people's every action for betrayal or improper thoughts. It is also used for oppressive political ideas and the use of euphemistic language in political discourse to camouflage morally outrageous ideas and actions.

The extensive use of this word often simply to attack things that a person does not like is directly against Orwell's own philosophy. In his essay Politics and the English Language he derides the use of cliché and dying metaphor which "even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent".

Orwell was extremely precise in his use of language particularly with its use in politics and he would probably be disgusted with the modern, almost arbitrary, use of Orwellian. He also said "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought".