politickese

English

Noun

politickese (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of politicese
   • 1982 January 2, Nicole Parton, “Promotion — at a price”, in The Weekend Sun, volume 95, number 51, Vancouver, B.C., page B 1:

     Those costs are up several thousand dollars from when, four years ago, our much ballyhooed Select Standing Committee on Agriculture (that’s politickese for food probe) released a report titled Rebates and Allowance in the British Columbia Food Industry, in which the committee concluded that despite such charges, everything was hunky dory in foodland.

   • 1988 April 3, Jerry Palko, “If City Hall’s Walls Have Ears, They’re Not Hearing Very Much”, in The Sunday Times, Scranton, Pa., page B-5:

     I mentioned this to Moran one day and he fell into that trap that so many people fall into by saying, “Well, write some good news.” Translated from politickese, that means, “Well, write a story about the good job I’m doing.”

   • 1993 February 24, Mark Anthony Young, “Mulronney is Gone!!!!”, in can.politics (Usenet):

     Trudeau came to power promising "not to raise the gas tax by 18 cents a gallon." And he didn't. He raised it 12 cents a gallon and then 11 cents a gallon. Neither was 18 cents, so they "kept" their promise. You just have to learn how to speak politickese.

   • 2016, chapter IX, in To the Customers: Insurrection and Doublethink, Aragorn Moser, page 110:

     Wouldn’t an Esperanto of revolt be magnificent? Not at all: those who want to organize their leader-becomings demand that the anarchist language disappears and that anarchists finally learn to express themselves in authoritarian politickese.