Link Centre Dictionary

unperson

un·per·son

uncommon

noun

1.

a person regarded as nonexistent and having no rights; a person whose existence is systematically ignored (especially for ideological or political reasons)

  • “the former senator is treated as a nonperson by this administration”
  • “George Orwell predicted that political dissidents would be treated as unpersons”
Synonyms

Origin

From un- + person. Coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where it refers to a person who has been executed or has fallen out of favor; whose entire history has been erased.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.