[Ads-l] Antedating of "Orwellian"

Thu Jan 14 13:25:28 UTC 2021

The date of almost every Hagarstown newspaper is mislabeled on newspapers.com.
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021 4:56:10 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Orwellian"

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Orwellian"
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Quite right Jesse. I shoudda checked. 1949
Stephen
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jesse =
Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021 7:54 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Orwellian"

That quote seems unlikely--the book 1984 wasn't published until June 1949, =
and I don't think there were any earlier excerpts using that title.

Jesse Sheidlower

On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 12:49:27PM +0000, Stephen Goranson wrote:
> 1946, Jan 28 Hagerstown Herald [MD, newspapers.com] 18/3
> ...concentration camps in Russia, the still Orwellian 1984 dictatorship.
>
> [Context of Fred's good find: the Soviet Union]
>
> SG
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Step=
hen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021 7:44 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Orwellian"
>
> 1946, July 27 New Statesman and Nation p. 69 [again, not necessarily 1984=
-ish]
>
> ...an Orwellian account by John Hampton of "underworld" literature.
> SG
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Step=
hen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021 7:39 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Orwellian"
>
> Fall 1949
> Peter Ustinov, Sight and Sound p. 15 [ProQuest--though not necessarily 19=
84-ish?]
> It is difficult to see a solution without being plunged into an Orwellian=
 gloom.
>
> SG
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shap=
iro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021 7:23 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Antedating of "Orwellian"
>
> Orwellian (OED 1950)
>
> 1949 St. Albans (Vt.) Daily Messenger 4 Nov. 4/3 (Newspapers.com)  Almost=
 all the Orwellian techniques of a future totalitarianism are found here.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Step=
hen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2021 6:17 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Orwellian, 1950
>
> Jan. 14 NYTimes, "How 'Orwellian' Became an All-Purpose Insult" includes:
> According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term =93Orwellian=94 star=
ted as a literary critic=92s playful shorthand, when the writer Mary McCart=
hy used it in a 1950 essay to describe a fashion magazine that had no =93po=
int of view beyond its proclamation of itself.=94 McCarthy published in The=
 Reporter, p. 33, dated Aug. 1, 1950 (though maybe available in July), "Up =
The Ladder From Charm to Vogue." "It [Flair] is a leap into the Orwellian f=
uture,  a magazine without content or point of view beyond its proclamation=
 of itself, one hundred and twenty pages of sheer presentation, a journalis=
tic mirage."
>
> Slight antedating. The Sphere [London}, April 8, 1950, "The Drive for 'Ne=
w Australians': and how it is being acheived," p. 44:
> "It is by now widely agreed, without Britain right in it, Western Europe =
is likely to evolve as a freak, to be eventually either German-dominated or=
 recast in the mould of Moscow Communism (something leading to Orwellian 19=
84).
>
> S. Goranson
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