Today’s phrase of the day is “doubleplusgood duckspeaker” from Newspeak; the language used in George Orwell’s book, 1984.
For those who haven’t read 1984, Newspeak was designed to eliminate all redundant language in an effort to limit the scope of people’s thinking. A single adjective is used (in this case “good”) and then strengthened and / or negated to form words with stronger or opposite meanings.
Using “good” as an example, “bad” is replaced with “ungood” and “very good” with “plusgood”. “Doubleplusgood” therefore has a meaning roughly equivalent to “excellent”.
“Duckspeaker” is used to describe someone who speaks the official totalitarian party line without thought or question, much as a duck quacks mindlessly. In 1984 it is considered to be a compliment, however in our world I would certainly use as an insult (though others might view it differently).
Putting both words we have: A “doubleplusgood duckspeaker” is a person who is very good at talking with little or no thought put in to what they are saying.
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