They consisted of two or more words， or portions of words， welded together in an easily pronounceable form. The resulting amalgam was always a noun-verb， and inflected according to the ordinary rules. To take a single example： the word goodthink， meaning， very roughly， “orthodoxy”， or， if one chose to regard it as a verb，“to think in an orthodox manner”. This inflected as follows： noun-verb， goodthink； past tense and past participle， goodthinked； present participle， good thinking； adjective， goodthinkful； adverb， goodthinkwise； verbal noun，goodthinker.
The B words were not constructed on any etymological plan. The words of which they were made up could be any parts of speech， and could be placed in any order and mutilated in any way which made them easy to pronounce while indicating their derivation. In the word crimethink （thoughtcrime）， for instance， the think came second， whereas in thinkpol （Thought Police） it came first， and in the latter word police had lost its second syllable. Because of the great difficuIty in securing euphony， irregular formations were commoner in the B vocabulary than in the A vocabulary. For example， the adjective forms of Minitrue， Minipax， and Miniluv were， respectively， Minitruthful， Minipeaceful， and Minilovely， simply because -trueful，-paxful， and-loveful were slightly awkward to pronounce. In principle， however， all B words could inflect， and all inflected in exactly the same way.
Some of the B words had highly subtilized meanings， barely intelligible to anyone who had not mastered the language as a whole. Consider， for example， such a typical sentence from a Times leading article as Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc. The shortest rendering that one could make of this in Oldspeak would be：“Those whose ideas were formed before the Revolution cannot have a full emotional understanding of the principles of English Socialism.”But this is not an adequate translation. To begin with， in order to Compound words such as speakwrite， were of course to be found in the A vocabulary， but these were merely convenient abbreviations and had no special ideological colour.
Grasping the full meaning of the Newspeak sentence quoted above， one would have to have a clear idea of what is meant by Ingsoc. And in addition， only a person thoroughly grounded in Ingsoc could appreciate the full force of the word bellyfeel， which implied a blind， enthusiastic acceptance difficult to imagine today； or of the word oldthink， which was inextricably mixed up with the idea of wickedness and decadence. But the special function of certain Newspeak words， of which oldthink was one， was not so much to express meanings as to destroy them. These words， necessarily few in number， had had their meanings extended until they contained within themselves whole batteries of words which， as they were sufficiently covered by a single comprehensive term， could now be scrapped and forgotten. The greatest difficulty facing the compilers of the Newspeak Dictionary was not to invent new words， but， having invented them， to make sure what they meant： to make sure， that is to say， what ranges of words they cancelled by their existence.
As we have already seen in the case of the word free， words which had once borne a heretical meaning were sometimes retained for the sake of convenience， but only with the undesirable meanings purged out of them. Countless other words such as honour， justice， morality， internationalism， democracy， science， and religion had simply ceased to exist. A few blanket words covered them， and， in covering them， abolished them. All words grouping themselves round the concepts of liberty and equality， for instance， were contained in the single word crimethink， while all words grouping themselves round the concepts of objectivity and rationalism were contained in the single word oldthink. Greater precision would have been dangerous. What was required in a Party member was an outlook similar to that of the ancient Hebrew who knew， without knowing much else， that all nations other than his own worshipped “false gods”. He did not need to know that these gods were called Baal， Osiris， Moloch， Ashtaroth， and the like： probably the less he knew about them the better for his orthodoxy. He knew Jehovah and the commandments of Jehovah： he knew， therefore， that all gods with other names or other attributes were false gods. In somewhat the same way， the party member knew what constituted right conduct， and in exceedingly vague， generalized terms he knew what kinds of departure from it were possible. His sexual life， for example， was entirely regulated by the two Newspeak words sexcrime （sexual immorality） and goodsex （chastity）. Sexcrime covered all sexual misdeeds whatever. It covered fornication， adultery， homosexuality， and other perversions， and， in addition， normal intercourse practised for its own sake. There was no need to enumerate them separately， since they were all equally culpable， and， in principle， all punishable by death. In the C vocabulary， which consisted of scientific and technical words， it might be necessary to give specialized names to certain sexual aberrations， but the ordinary citizen had no need of them. He knew what was meant by goodsex — that is to say， normal intercourse between man and wife， for the sole purpose of begetting children， and without physical pleasure on the part of the woman： all else was sexcrime. In Newspeak it was seldom possible to follow a heretical thought further than the perception that it was heretical： beyond that point the necessary words were nonexistent.
