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Gileadean en · ADJ

Etymology

From Gilead + -ean.

Meanings

1. Of, related to, or characteristic of the fictional theocratic dystopian nation of Gilead in Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale.
   • To equate the Gileadean repression of Offred's voice with Pieixoto's reconstruction of it is to narrow the set of possible meanings too much. 1998, John Whalen-Bridge, Political Fiction and the American Self, page 180:
   • Strictly speaking, it was not a manuscript at all when first discovered, and bore no title. The superscription “The Handmaid’s Tale” was appended to it by Professor Wade, partly in homage to the great Geoffrey Chaucer; but those of you who know Professor Wade informally, as I do, will understand when I say that I am sure all puns were intentional, particularly that having to do with the archaic vulgar signification of the word tail; that being, to some extent, the bone, as it were, of contention, in that phase of Gileadean society of which our saga treats. 1985, Margaret Atwood, “Historical Notes”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, page 313:
   • It is certainly no accident that Offred emphasizes the large collection of books she observes in her first secret unofficial visit to the Commander's study, thus linking books directly with this serious transgression of Gileadean law. 1995, M. Keith Booker, A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism, page 262:
   • The central preoccupation of the Gileadean society is human reproduction, because most members are sterile or infertile due to the build-up of toxic wastes and nuclear fallout. 1999, Virginia Olessen, Revisioning Women, Health and Healing: Feminist, Cultural, and Technoscience Perspectives, page 234:

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
more Gileadean	Degree=Cmp		lexicographic
most Gileadean	Degree=Sup		lexicographic

Gileadean en · NOUN

Etymology

From Gilead + -ean.

Meanings

1. An inhabitant of the fictional theocratic dystopian nation of Gilead in Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale.
   • Both Gileadeans and contemporary want-to-be parents foster genetic information as the imperative condition to define the baby belonging to its family, its identity, and, in consequence, familiar relationships. 2023, Esther Muñoz-González, Posthumanity in the Anthropocene: Margaret Atwood’s Dystopias (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature), Routledge, →ISBN:
   • The classification of the Gileadeans, for example, is explicitly based on the biblical story of Jacob, Rachel, and Bilhah (Genesis 30:1–3), with the Commanders officially assuming the role of Jacob, the Wives thereby being given the role of Rachel, and the Handmaids that of Bilhah. 2017, Maria Christou, “Food in Margaret Atwood’s Dystopias”, in Eating Otherwise: The Philosophy of Food in Twentieth-Century Literature, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 123:
   • If I may be permitted an editorial aside, allow me to say that in my opinion we must be cautious about passing moral judgement upon the Gileadeans. 1985, Margaret Atwood, “Historical Notes”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, page 314:
   • Not surprisingly, the Gileadeans immediately distanced themselves from this act by blaming the massacre on Islamic extremists. 2010, J. Brooks Bouson, editor, Critical Insights: The Handmaid’s Tale, Salem Press, →ISBN, page 61:

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
Gileadeans	Number=Plur		lexicographic