1984

           ‘Slowly,’saidSyme. ‘I’montheadjectives. It’sfascinating.’ 

           HehadbrightenedupimmediatelyatthementionofNewspeak. Hepushedhispannikinaside,tookuphishunkofbreadinonedelicatehandandhischeeseintheother,andleanedacrossthetablesoastobeabletospeakwithoutshouting. 

           ‘TheEleventhEditionisthedefinitiveedition,’hesaid. ‘We’regettingthelanguageintoitsfinalshape—theshapeit’sgoingtohavewhennobodyspeaksanythingelse. Whenwe’vefinishedwithit,peoplelikeyouwillhavetolearnitalloveragain. Youthink,Idaresay,thatourchiefjobisinventingnewwords. Butnotabitofit! We’redestroyingwords—scoresofthem,hundredsofthem,everyday. We’recuttingthelanguagedowntothebone. TheEleventhEditionwon’tcontainasinglewordthatwillbecomeobsoletebeforetheyear2050.’ 

           Hebithungrilyintohisbreadandswallowedacoupleofmouthfuls,thencontinuedspeaking,withasortofpedant’spassion. Histhindarkfacehadbecomeanimated,hiseyeshadlosttheirmockingexpressionandgrownalmostdreamy. 

           ‘It’sabeautifulthing,thedestructionofwords. Ofcoursethegreatwastageisintheverbsandadjectives,buttherearehundredsofnounsthatcanbegotridofaswell. Itisn’tonlythesynonyms; therearealsotheantonyms. Afterall,whatjustificationisthereforawordwhichissimplytheoppositeofsomeotherword? Awordcontainsitsoppositeinitself. Take"good",forinstance. Ifyouhaveawordlike"good",whatneedisthereforawordlike"bad"? "Ungood"willdojustaswell—better,becauseit’sanexactopposite,whichtheotherisnot.