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.
The B words were not constructed on any etymological plan. The words
of which they were made up could be any parts of speech, and could be
placed in any order and mutilated in any way which made them easy to
pronounce while indicating their derivation. In the word crimethink
(thoughtcrime), for instance, the think came second, whereas in thinkpol
(Thought Police) it came first, and in the latter word police had lost its
second syllable. Because of the great difficulty in securing euphony,
irregular formations were commoner in the B vocabulary than in the A
vocabulary. For example, the adjective forms of Minitrue, Minipax, and
Miniluv were, respectively, Minitruthful, Minipeaceful, and Minilovely,
simply because -trueful, -paxful, and -loveful were sliightly awkward to
pronounce. In principle, however, all B words could inflect, and all
inflected in exactly the same way.
Some of the B words had highly subtilized meanings, barely
intelligible to anyone who had not mastered the language as a whole.
Consider, for example, such a typical sentence from a Times leading article
as Oldthinkers unbe