dystopia

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by mathman, Dec 14, 2014.

  1. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    When and where did "dystopia" enter the English language?
     
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  3. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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  5. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    Do you have a reference?
     
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  7. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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  8. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, but it's interesting, because it appears to be a false opposite to "utopia", coined by Thomas More. This is not spelt "eutopia, which would mean "good place". Utopia simply means "no place", i.e. indicating it is imaginary.
     
  9. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    But it is universally used to mean a place that is perfect, wonderful, etc. It was not coined by the ancient Greeks themselves, but rather by an intellectually-oriented member of post-medieval European culture, which freely coined new Latin and Greek words (more or less adhering to the ancients' rules for compounding) and even Latin-Greek hybrids like "television" and "automobile." Therefore we can be sure that More knew that he was creating a word with the literal meaning "no place"--his little joke, admitting that there really is no such place.

    Dystopia, on the other hand, is, literally, a "bad place." In most eras, there are plenty of actual dystopias in existence. North Korea, Sudan and Nicaragua, in our own era, come to mind.
     
  10. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Indeed, I found that apparently More even referred to the ambiguity in the spoken meaning in an addendum to the book. So he may have been aware there was a pun there.
     

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