wrongthink
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
wrong + think, probably modelled on earlier crimethink from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Noun[edit]
wrongthink (uncountable)
- Beliefs or opinions that run contrary to the prevailing or mainstream orthodoxy.
- Synonyms: badthink, crimethink
- 1979, Joan Didion, The White Album:
- In other words I spent yesterday in bed with a headache not merely because of my bad attitudes, unpleasant tempers and wrongthink, but because both my grandmothers had migraine, my father has migraine and my mother has migraine.
- 2020 June 11, David Bernstein, “The Revolution is Eating its Own”, in The Volokh Conspiracy[1]:
- Fang, fearing for his job, had to issue a Maoist-style apology for reporting wrongthink.
Usage notes[edit]
- With its Orwellian roots, use of the word implies that freedom of opinion is being suppressed.