List of Newspeak Words - Prefixes

Prefixes

• "Un-" is a Newspeak prefix used for negation. It is used as a prefix to make the word negative, since there are no antonyms in Newspeak. Therefore, for example, warm becomes uncold. It is often decided to keep the word which has a more unpleasant nuance to it when choosing which one of the antonyms should be kept in the process of diminishing vocabulary. Therefore, cold is preferred to unwarm or unhot, and dark is preferred to unlight, even though cold and darkness are not physical phenomena as opposed to light and heat. The Party's choice for the less pleasant versions of an antonym may be interpreted as another way the Party makes its subjects depressive and pessimistic to suppress unorthodox thought. On the other hand, the Party controls one's ability to think negatively by sometimes allowing only the positive term preceded by "un-". For example, the concept of "bad" can be expressed only with ungood. When placed before a verb, "un-" becomes a negative imperative; for example, unproceed means "do not proceed". This is similar to the adding of "mal" for negation in Esperanto.
• "Ante-" is added to a word in place of using the word "before" (and literally means 'before' in Latin). For example, "antefiling" would mean "before filing".
• "Plus-" is an intensifier, in place of "more" or the suffix "-er" (in some situations). Thus, great or better becomes plusgood.
• "Doubleplus-" further intensifies "plus-", so doubleplusgood is used in place of excellent or best.