1984-ish

English

Alternative forms

• 1984ish

Etymology

From 1984 +‎ -ish, a reference to the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌnʌɪntiːneɪtiˈfɔːɹɪʃ/

Adjective

1984-ish (comparative more 1984-ish, superlative most 1984-ish)

1. (informal) Resembling or pertaining to a totalitarian society, especially one characterised by intensive surveillance of the population. [from 20th c.]
   • 2000, G. R. Evans, Martyn Percy, Managing the Church?: Order and Organization in a Secular Age, page 128:

     I have no idea what this 1984-ish-sounding organization actually does, though I suspect it has something to do with industrial processes.

   • 2007, Jerome Sala, What if someone were listening? Contemporary poetry and the problem of popularity, page 140:

     The poems were then posted on a Library of Congress website, and high school principals were encouraged in the slightly 1984-ish task of reading them over their loud speakers each morning at the beginning of the school day.

   • 2011, Charles Forbin, The Diaries of Ay'esha: Trapped and Trained, page 171:

     A truly 1984-ish paradox. What had gone down the memory hole?

   • 2011, John E.B. Myers, The APSAC Handbook on Child Maltreatment, page viii:

     All these technologies sound a bit ominous and 1984-ish when taken out of context.