doublethink en · NOUN
Etymology
From double + think. Coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Meanings
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(uncountable, usually) The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them as true or correct; an instance of doing so.
The same sort of doublethink is evident in the White House’s treatment of firsthand impeachment witnesses.
2019 December 2, Eric Lutz, “Trump Lawyer Cites No Due Process as Reason to Sit Out Due Process”, in Vanity Fair, archived from the original on 25 Oct 2021:The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?
1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 3, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001, part 3, page 242:Any effort by the United States to halt these creeping advances of Communist imperialism became, by the same mad process of double-think, the only kind of "intervention" there ever could be.
1965 May 11, William S. White, “Doctrine of Nonintervention Comes Cropper In Dominica”, in The Morning Record, Meriden-Wallingford, Connecticut, page 4:Or does the hypocrisy and doublethink go beyond a loathing of the human body and an acceptance of violence to a very practical fear that such a club in a predominantly middle-class Caucasian neighborhood will drive down property values?
1992 March 5, Sylvain Fribourg, “The Agony of the Extasy [Letter to the Editor]”, in Los Angeles Times, archived from the original on 02 Mar 2020:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| doublethinks | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Translations (27)
hu kettős/kétlaki gondolkodás/gondolkozás (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · es doblepensar (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · fi kaksoisajattelu (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · kmr duramanî (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · lt dvejamintė (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · eo duoblapenso (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · de Doppeldenk (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · cs dvojité myšlení (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · pl dwójmyślenie (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · nl dubbeldenk (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · it bipensiero (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · pt duplopensar (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · fr doublepensée (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · ja 二重思考 (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · it bispensiero (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · cmn 雙想 /双想 (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · sh dvomisao (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · cmn 双重思想 (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · pt duplipensar (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · he דּוּ חוֹשֵׁב (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · sv dubbeltänk (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · cmn 雙重思想 /双重思想 (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · hu duplagondol (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · cy daufeddwl (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · ru двоемы́слие (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · ka ორაზრი (the holding of two contradictory beliefs) · kmr dufikrî (the holding of two contradictory beliefs)