unperson
A person who has been stripped of rights, identity, or humanityA person who has been stripped of rights, identity, or humanity.
Meaning
1 sensesA person who has been stripped of rights, identity, or humanity.
With his identity stolen, he became an unperson, unable to prove his existence to the government.
- a person regarded as nonexistent and having no rights; a person whose existence is systematically ignored (especially for ideological or political reasons)
Translations
2 languagesOrigin
From un- + person. Coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel NiFrom 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.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: unpersons / unpeopleSynonyms
1 synonyms- a person regarded as nonexistent and having no rights; a person whose existence is systematically ignored (especially for ideological or political reasons):nonperson
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Plural nouns — Because its plural is irregular
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.