1984: Part Two: Chapters 6–10

by George Orwell
Published in 1949, this dystopian classic imagines a future of perpetual war, militaristic propaganda, and total government surveillance.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part One: Chapters 1–4, Part One: Chapters 5–8, Part Two: Chapters 1–5, Part Two: Chapters 6–10, Part Three, Appendix–Afterword

Here are links to our lists for other works by George Orwell: Politics and the English Language, Shooting an Elephant, Animal Farm
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words only definitions & notes
  1. disseminate
    spread by scattering, as when sowing seeds
    “You are prepared to cheat, to forge, to blackmail, to corrupt the minds of children, to distribute habit-forming drugs, to encourage prostitution, to disseminate venereal diseases — to do anything which is likely to cause demoralization and weaken the power of the Party?”
    The given definition's focus on knowing suggests spreading truths that could undermine the Party. However, the rebellious tactics suggested here include targeting children and engaging in biological warfare. "Disseminate" comes from the Latin "seminare" which means "to sow" and from "semen" which means "seed"--what's suggested with this verb is having lots of sex to plant semen that spread venereal diseases that could destroy the Party from within.
  2. persiflage
    light teasing
    When he spoke of murder, suicide, venereal disease, amputated limbs, and altered faces, it was with a faint air of persiflage.
  3. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    The world of today is a bare, hungry, dilapidated place compared with the world that existed before 1914, and still more so if compared with the imaginary future to which the people of that period looked forward.
  4. empirical
    derived from experiment and observation rather than theory
    This failed to happen, partly because of the impoverishment caused by a long series of wars and revolutions, partly because scientific and technical progress depended on the empirical habit of thought, which could not survive in a strictly regimented society.
  5. stupefied
    as if struck dumb with astonishment and surprise
    For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away.
    "Stupefy" comes from the same Latin verb as "stupid" ("stupere" which means "to be stunned")--this connection is suggested by the contrasting phrase "would learn to think for themselves" and seems like a hopeful statement about the proles, since they are not too stupid to learn, and if given the chance and resources, they could shake off the crushing blows of poverty and rise to overthrow the Party.
  6. credulous
    disposed to believe on little evidence
    Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph.
  7. spurious
    plausible but false
    In his capacity as an administrator, it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and is either not happening or is being waged for purposes quite other than the declared ones; but such knowledge is easily neutralized by the technique of doublethink.
  8. diminution
    the act of decreasing or reducing something
    And even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty.
  9. tenet
    a basic principle or belief that is accepted as true
    The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense.
  10. execrate
    curse or declare to be evil or anathema
    The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense.
  11. dissipate
    go away, scatter, or disappear
    The discontents produced by his bare, unsatisfying life are deliberately turned outwards and dissipated by such devices as the Two Minutes Hate, and the speculations which might possibly induce a skeptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early acquired inner discipline.
  12. readjustment
    the act of adapting something to match a standard
    But by far the more important reason for the readjustment of the past is the need to safeguard the infallibility of the Party.
  13. infallibility
    the quality of never making an error
    But by far the more important reason for the readjustment of the past is the need to safeguard the infallibility of the Party.
  14. cynicism
    a pessimistic feeling of distrust
    This peculiar linking-together of opposites — knowledge with ignorance, cynicism with fanaticism — is one of the chief distinguishing marks of Oceanic society.
  15. vilify
    spread negative information about
    Thus, the Party rejects and vilifies every principle for which the Socialist movement originally stood, and it chooses to do this in the name of Socialism.
Created on Mon Mar 03 11:22:39 EST 2014 (updated Tue Jul 08 14:33:34 EDT 2025)

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