Meanings
- derogatoryinformaluncountableSpeech or writing that is overly abstract, vague, metaphorical or pretentious in order to avoid addressing salient issues.
Of more consequence is the emergence of a phenomen which is perhaps peculiar to the modern world: the phenomenon which the French and Russians call “wooden language,” and which we might call, in honor of Orwell's satire, newspeak.
[1990, Roger Scruton, “Ideologically Speaking”, in Christopher Ricks, Leonard Michaels, editors, The State of the Language, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 1261 more example
Life behind the iron curtain was an education in a certain kind of humour: dark, unsentimental and absurd. It understood that jokes had become shortcuts to the truth – apart from the bonus of laughter, they turned the wooden language of the regime against itself in ways that sincerity could not.
2022 May 20, Patrick McGuinness, “Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov review – the dangers of dwelling in the past”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Origin
- Frenchlangue de bois
- Englishwooden language
Calque of French langue de bois.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan novaparla
- novaparlaTranslations
Czech dřevěný jazyk
- dřevěný jazykTranslations
French langue de bois
- langue de boisTranslations
German Betonsprache, Holzsprache
- BetonspracheTranslations
- HolzspracheTranslations
Greek ξύλινη γλώσσα
- ξύλινη γλώσσα (xýlini glóssa)Translations
Cite this entry
wooden language. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wooden%20language
“wooden language.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wooden%20language. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wooden language,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wooden%20language.
Source: wooden language on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.