General
nadsat
What does nadsat mean?
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'.
"The whole novel is narrated in Nadsat, which the reader slowly learns to viddy."
Origin
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.
Frequently asked questions
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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