• missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de
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    20 hours ago

    Newspeak was inspired by Esperanto, because George Orwell had an annoying Esperantist roommate. “bad” in Esperanto is “malbone,” literally “un-good.” “terrible” in Esperanto is “malbonege,” literally “very ungood.”

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Also Esperanto at the time was hoped to be the universal second language of the working class. That did not mean esperantists were any less annoying then though

      • missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 hours ago

        they meant well! honestly Esperanto has a really positive community, even still. but I can see how it’d get on someone’s nerves.