Doublespeak

Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a "communication bypass". Such language is associated with governmental, military, and corporate institutions. Doublespeak may be in the form of bald euphemisms ("downsizing" for "firing of many employees") or deliberately ambiguous phrases ("wet work" for "assassination"). Doublespeak is distinguished from other euphemisms through its deliberate usage by governmental, military, or corporate institutions.

Examples of doublespeak in current usage

The following list contains some examples of doublespeak in current English usage, with etymologies and examples of clearer, simpler words which are being avoided. This list can never be more than illustrative, and not everyone will agree that all of the examples below are doublespeak.

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Corporate

• layoff, downsize, rightsize, headcount adjustment, RIF (reduction in force), realignment: mass dismissal of employees, usually due to business restructuring or economic conditions
• also counseled out, made redundant, let go, dismissed, terminated, services are no longer required, et cetera, for firing in general
• The Dilbert series satirizes this in one strip in which an employee is unable to figure out that he has been fired.
• job flexibility: lack of job security (where job security means an actual or implied promise of continued employment)
• outsource: dismissing in-house employees to hire cheaper labor provided by another organization.
• replacement workers: scabs or strikebreakers in labor disputes
• reliability enhancement: fix for a software bug.

Espionage

• classified: in general usage, "secret"; in governmental usage, information which has been evaluated and possibly assigned a security clearance.
• Since at least World War II, United States military and governmental information has been distinguished into classes corresponding to increasing levels of security clearances required by those people allowed access to it, and has come to be called classified information (as in "classified for a particular clearance").
• intelligence: information and sources of information (spies and spying)
• human intelligence: information from spies and interrogated prisoners, and other information from human sources (such as weather reports or economic studies) used by a secret or military agency
• asset: a secret agency's recruited, clandestine human source in a foreign country (foreign spies)
• wet work: assassination
• physical persuasion or physical pressure: torture

Military

• defense: war, as in the United States Department of Defense, formed by the merging of the Department of War and Department of the Navy
• neutralize or service: to kill or disable a target
• friendly fire: being inadvertently and mistakenly attacked by your allies
• collateral damage: unintentional killing or damage; bystander deaths and injuries
• area denial munitions: landmines
• bombs which kill civilians are, according to The Pentagon, "incontinent ordnance" (Lutz)
• preemptive war: to invade a foreign country so that the invading nation will not be invaded itself or be subjected to an enemy strike later on
• pre-hostility: peace
• secure an area (or mop up): kill remaining enemy soldiers
• asymmetric warfare: local violence or unrest, suicide bombing; contained violence.
• casualty: death or injury
• operational exhaustion: shell shock
• engage: Attack; fire upon the enemy.
• engagement: A battle.
• troublemaker, treasonist, criminal, terrorist, unpatriotic: often names for rebel, revolutionary, or folk heroes, especially by oppressive governments
• surgical strike: bombing attack by plane
• psychological deterrent: the largest (non nuclear) bombs, such as the Daisy Cutter, and M.O.B. - The existence of a large bomb prevents the enemy from attacking, in theory.
• targeted killing: assassination

Political

• final solution (Endlösung): The Holocaust
• Doublespeak was very common in the Third Reich. Goebbels' Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Ministry of the Reich for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) coined thousands of new German words. Other examples include: Concentration Camp (labor/death camp), Heim ins Reich (occupation of Austria), the meanings of Volk (people) and Rasse (race).
• ethnic cleansing: genocide
• freedom fighter: armed political rebel (positive term); the same person might be described as a "guerilla" or (sometimes) a "partisan" if we are neutral towards him, or a "terrorist" if we disagree with him.
• internment facility: prison
• protective custody: imprisonment without due process of law
• intervention: invasion
• executive action: assassination
• public donation, shared sacrifice: taxes
• Other person: slave (used in the United States Constitution)

Law enforcement

Police and court officers use much jargon and many terms of art. The vast majority of these terms are neither properly called euphemisms nor doublespeak: some may actually be dysphemisms. While there are well documented instances in which police officers have conducted criminal activities under cover of legitimate law enforcement: nevertheless, an unlawful arrest remains an arrest, an improper search remains a search, and so on.

Related Topics:
Euphemism - Dysphemisms

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When illegal activity is routine, it often acquires its own specific jargon. For example, the term "black-bag operations" was used by the FBI to describe illegal break-ins in the 1970's. Mostly, such terms are an informal code, similar to thieves' cant, intended to be used and understood only by fellow-conspirators.

Related Topics:
FBI - 1970's - Code - Thieves' cant

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The following terms are reasonably widespread law enforcement terms that qualify as doublespeak.

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• aggressive enforcement: harassment, racial profiling.
• fines on the spot: bribes taken during traffic stops.
• gain access: jimmy a window, pick a lock, break down a door.

::In some cases, the means of entry are legitimately obscured in order to protect an informant or a method. Such usage is not properly termed euphemistic.

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• pacify: subdue by force.

::In some instances, such as the "Dirty 39th" Precinct in Philadelphia, this has been the term of choice for excessive and unjustified force.

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• person of interest: suspect, material witness.

Social

• job seekers: the unemployed
• asylum seekers: refugees
• undocumented aliens: (US) illegal aliens
• African-American: American-born black man/woman (vs. immigrant from Africa)
• person of color: black man/woman (cf. pre-1960s "colored")
• full-figured: fat
• unsavory character: criminal (or, more specifically suspected criminal)
• involuntary conversion: plane crash -- a vanishingly rare usage, and included only for curiosity's sake.
• differently abled: disabled (or: crippled)
• Health Care Center: Hospital
• sales advisor: shop assistant
• senior citizen: old person
• learning difference: learning disability (in some cases, stupid)
• slow: stupid
• motivationally challenged: lazy
• issues: problems or malfunction (especially in the IT field)
• visually impaired: blind or nearly so
• comfort women: prostitute, later specifically women forced into sexual slavery during World War II (see also Joy Division (World War II))
• Customer Service Representative: bank teller
• urban: African American. For example, "urban contemporary music" refers to rap, hip-hop and other forms of popular music stereotypically associated with African Americans.
• cosmopolitan: Jewish (originally a usage linked to Nazism)
• passed away or no longer with us: died
• diverse: predominantly formed of members of a specific minority group (for example, "Los Angeles has many diverse public high schools")

Sports

• cost certainty: salary-cap; often used by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman during his negotiations with the NHL Players Association during the 2004-05 NHL lockout; Bettman wants to impose a salary cap on NHL teams
• incident: a fight, or some other violent action such as a slash in hockey that results in suspension and/or fine, or a fight between a player and a fan
• upper/lower body injury: often used in hockey, this term implies that a player is injured but the specifics of the injury are not disclosed; especially used during playoff time so that opposing teams will not be able to find out the extent of the players' injuries; for example, a leg injury can be classified as a "lower body injury", a shoulder injury can be classified as an "upper body injury"
• scratch: used in hockey, implies that a player is taken off the roster for a game usually due to injury (scratching a player off the roster list); a healthy scratch means that the player (usually a struggling player) is taken off the roster due to the coach's decision, not because of an injury
• contraction: a plan to reduce (fold) a number of teams in a league in the hopes of increasing its competitiveness and reducing the financial losses of the league; Major League Baseball once considered folding two teams, widely thought to be the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos
• objects: things thrown onto the field resulting in the disruption of a game/match, such as bottles, cups, flares
• seeking a trade: a sign that a player badly wants out of his current team for various reasons

Other

• terminated: Mafia-style killings. Also used instead of "fired" in workplace settings.
• spontaneous energetic disassembly for "explosion" (reportedly used by a director of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant)
• deactivating satellite receivers: doing malicious damage to receiver firmware in response to widespread pirate decryption problems (this euphemism was used in Globe and Mail coverage of Bell ExpressVu - both just happen to be owned by the same company)