Nadsat
The invented teen argot of A Clockwork Orange, named from the Russian suffix '-nadtsat' (-teen).
Definitions
Nadsat is the fictional teenage slang spoken by Alex and his droogs in A Clockwork Orange. The name comes from the Russian suffix '-nadtsat' (-надцать), the equivalent of English '-teen' in numbers eleven through nineteen, so 'nadsat' literally signals 'teenage'.
Burgess designed it partly as a mild form of brainwashing on the reader, who absorbs the vocabulary without a glossary, mirroring the novel's themes of conditioning.
As a constructed argot, Nadsat blends anglicised Russian with Cockney rhyming slang, Romani, and Burgess's own coinages.
Nadsat In A Sentence
Origin & Usage
Invented by Anthony Burgess for A Clockwork Orange (1962). The name derives from the Russian numeral suffix '-nadtsat', equivalent to '-teen'. Burgess described his aims in the essay 'Clockwork Marmalade' (1972) and built the argot mainly from Russian, with Cockney and Romani elements.
People Also Ask
What does Nadsat mean?
It is the name of the teen argot in A Clockwork Orange, from the Russian suffix '-nadtsat', meaning '-teen'.
Where did Nadsat come from?
Anthony Burgess invented it in 1962, drawing mainly on Russian plus Cockney rhyming slang and Romani.
Why did Burgess invent Nadsat?
To estrange the reader from the violence and to make the reader absorb a new vocabulary as a kind of conditioning, echoing the book's themes.
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