Popinjay Cyclopedia

The Handmade's Tale, The Left Hand of Darkness, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Anthem, and many more.

Dystopian tales often use Language as a weapon and as control over the population. A Clockwork Orange was published with a glossary at the back of the novel.

No one picks up a novel expecting to read a Dictionary of new words, old words redefined, archaic and obsolete words reintroduced, or colloquial and slang words used as daily vocabulary in a futuristic society.

Popinjay reinforces the idea that to control People the government must control Language. The novel uses archaic, obscure, colloquial, and slang words as well as neologisms and redefines common words with new meanings and nuances.

This is a common trope in dystopian novels and is especially true in Society today by those wanting to control society's dialogue and thoughts. Many states are passing laws targeting Pronouns, Gender designations, making some words illegal, et cetera. Remember when "Ms" caused an uproar?

Words are Politically Correct or Politally Incorrect. Words once common in daily use even a few years ago are spoken in barely audible whispers in public or have been dropped because they have become offensive or have a different meaning. 

In the early 20th Century, if someone said, "Betty and I made love last night," no one thought sexual intercourse. What image do you see when Betty says, "Last night's date with Sam was so special. We petted for hours." Say either of those out loud while in line at Walmart and note the turned heads and critical looks you get.

Words that once were acceptable daily verbage have become sexist, racist, ageist, and whateverist the Language Police deem socially and culturally offensive.

Certain words and expressions have changed connotative meaning over time. Try teaching "The Rape of the Lock" or When Our Hearts were Young and Gay to students today. How about the original two titles of Agatha's Christie's And Then There were None?

Some words used in Popinjay have faded out of popular vocabulary while others are resurrected or invented (neologisms).

The following Cyclopedia is a venture in Vocabulary World Creation as Popinjay comes to Life.

Some readers will be perplexed and perhaps annoyed at the vocabulary and phrases used by the characters in the tale, just as readers were with A Clockwork Orange, until the reader discovered the glossary at the back, or when Ayn Rand's Anthem confused readers by using "they," "their", "they're", and "we" instead of the singular personal pronouns he/she/, his/her, and I until the reader realizes that in Rand's dystopian world using singular personal pronouns referring to Self Identity is punishable by death

Citigen: a True Gender member of society, either True Male or True Female; allowed to attend uni, work in admin and support; have some say in government issues; must marry and have only one child; allowed to use the personal pronouns he/she, him/her, his/hers according to their True Gender; mosaics, pregens, nongens, and abnorgens are not Citigens;

Mosaics--those for whom No Gender is revealed after education and testing at seminary and remain Non Gender as adults; called Mosaics as they are essentially an amalgam of Male and Female because they have the dominate X and Z chromosomes with a submissive Y chromosome--XyZ Chromosomes; they are the administrators, lawyers, judges, teachers, councilers, police, and military; use the Zhe pronouns (see below)

Mx--pronounced "mix"; the formal title used before a Mosaic's nongender name

Popinjay--a slang term for Mosaics because their tunics and pants are iridescent dark blue with lighter minor hues that resemble a modified popinjay butterfly (stibochiona nicea); especially when the wind blows the long sleeves and tunic, they look as though may take flight

Abnorgen--Abnormal Gender: a person who is born with gender despite having received the gender inhibitor chromosome Z; also, those who live outside of Usamer and are born with gender

Gencrime--gender crime; any of several offenses the government determines to be sexual deviancy and anti-True Gender: homosexuality, multi-sexual partners, celibacy, childlessness, divorce, birth control, and anything that does not fit the One Man-One Woman stern interpretation of the religious demagogues.

Genpol--gender police; responsible for enforcing the laws of True Gender

Gensex--To the authoritarian/totalitarian government in this futuristic dystopia, Gender and Sex are consider one and the same, inseparable

Nongen--nongender; applied only to Mosaics after seminary as no True Gender was revealed; pregens are not referred to as nongens.

Pregen--Pre Gender; also Non Gender--children born without gender; a person between birth and 15

Prepube--pre-puberty student attending the Gender Education and Assignment Seminary: a pregen who attends seminary at 16

Pube--a person who has morphed as True Male or True Female in the Chrysalis; ages 16-20

Trugen--True Gender: True Male or True Female; allowed to use and be addressed by the personal gender pronouns he/she, him/her/, his/hers, et cetera, as well as Mr. and Mrs.

Z Chromosome--a synthetic chromosome created in the early 2000s by Dr. Andrea Zeman, who's sibling was born with gender dysmorphia; Dr. Zeman wanted to prevent embryo and birth gender defects; the synthetic Z chromosome inhibits the extra X or the additional Y chromosome to drop to join the X chromosome all embroys are given at conception to develope either a female or male fetus; Z chromosome fulfills all the necessary functions of an X or Y chromosome except for allowing the fetus to develope gender; however, after the Gender Identity Wars, her Z Chromosome was used by the totalitarian/authoritarian regime to control Gender in embryos and the population, based on the religious demagogues' belief that there are two and only two True Genders: True Male and True Female.

Form-- educational stage, class, or grouping of pupils in a school; Form 5/Fifth Form is 15-16 year olds, equivalent to juniors in American HS.

Hugger-Mugger--from the 1500s; secret or clandestine; noun or verb

Mislived--used since the 1400s and found in Chaucer; a term in relation to wicked, vile, wrong, offensive behavior

Mucker--from Middle English; a hoarder

Two-Spirit Gender-- people who are male, female, and sometimes intersexed individuals who combine activities of both men and women with traits unique to their status as two-spirit people; not necessarily or always homosexual; considered neither men nor women; they occupy a distinct, alternative gender status,  considered abnorgens and are quilty of gencrime; from Native American and Asian cultures; modern term used is Binary

Uni--from Britain; university

Unperfect--from the late 1300s; sinful, wickedness

Epiphanize--verb form of epiphany: to reveal, represent, or describe something through an epiphany.

Preconceived misconception--a false idea based on a false assumption 

Redact Gender/Gender Redacter--to blot out the person's belief, inner feelings of his/her True Gender; to erase the thought from the person's psyche, consciousness, and unconsciousness; a Mosaic who specializes in redacting gender from the memories of those who are biologically one gender but belief they are mentally/spiritually another gender

Usamer--the portion of the United States of America carved out when the True Gender forces won the Gender Identity Wars at the end of the 21st Century; stretches east to west from the Appalacians to the Rocky Mountains and from north to south from the 49th Parallel to the Rio Grande River; divided into districts, such as Dallok, which stretches from what today is Dallas to Oklahoma City

Zhe--from the Russian Cyrillic letter often interpreted as meaning life; also; the letter is used as the symbol for male-female; pronoun used by Mosaics as they are nongender;  equivalent singular pronouns--zhe=he/she; zher=him/her; zhers=his/her

Nosheteria=from nosh (eating/snacking); name for cafeteria

Shambolic--Chiefly British Informal; very disorganized; messy or confused

Zack--colloquial; expressing that something happens quickly or suddenly