mental attitude upon the person using them. Without a
full understanding of the principles of Ingsoc it was difficult to use
these words correctly. In some cases they could be translated into
Oldspeak, or even into words taken from the A vocabulary, but this usually
demanded a long paraphrase and always involved the loss of certain
overtones. The B words were a sort of verbal shorthand, often packing whole
ranges of ideas into a few syllables, and at the same time more accurate
and forcible than ordinary language.
The B words were in all cases compound words[2]. They consisted of two
or more words, or portions of words, welded together in an easily
pronounceable form. The resulting amalgam was always a noun-verb, and
inflected according to the ordinary rules. To take a single example: the
word goodthink, meaning, very roughly, 'orthodoxy', or, if one chose to
regard it as a verb, 'to think in an orthodox manner'. This inflected as
follows: noun-verb, goodthink; past tense and past participle, goodthinked;
present participle, goodthinking; adjective, goodthinkful; adverb,
goodthinkwise; verbal noun, goodthinker.