Orwellian describes a situation or idea similar to the fiction of George Orwell; particularly his political novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Nineteen Eighty-Four told the story of a grim future in which all human beings were slaves to one of three totalitarian one-party states.

As a result, the term "Orwellian" usually refers to one or more 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 the word Orwellian, often simply to attack political ideas that a writer or speaker does not like, is directly against Orwell's own political views. Orwell tried to promote the use of more precise language in political discourse, and he criticised political language popular at the time, such as "running-dog lackey" and "Fascist octopus" which he said prevented thought. In his essay Politics and the English Language (http://eserver.org/langs/politics-english-language.txt), he derides the use of cliché and dying metaphors, which "even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent" and goes on to say "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

See also

• Mass surveillance