dystopia
nounUK /dɪsˈtəʊ.pi.ə/ · US /dɪsˈtoʊ.pi.ə/
Etymology From dys- + -topia, as if from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-, “bad”) + τόπος (tópos, “place, region”) + -ία (-ía), based on utopia being reinterpreted as eu-topia.
1
A miserable, dysfunctional state or society that has a very poor standard of living or severe censorship, oppression, etc.
- As novelist, he knows, too, that when he sees the future, it will not work—he will automatically be creating a “dystopia” (no one creates utopias any more: even the utopias of the past look like dystopias to us).1978 November 19, Martin Amis, “A Stoked‐Up 1976”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- 2. FEAR OF TECHNOLOGY/THE BOMB/THE FUTURE—Progress run amok, either in the form of cybernetic creatures that turn against their masters, or future dystopiae in which society is controlled by technology.1997, Jeff Yang, Dina Gan, Terry Hong, the staff of A. Magazine, Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture: from Astro Boy to Zen Buddhism, Mariner Books, →ISBN, page 57:
4 more examples
- Erich Fromm, who has commented on 1984 and other dystopiae in postmodern literature discovers a mechanized dystopia in the text of existence itself in the ’50s and ’60s—a “technological nightmare” that had turned people into zombies and made the darkest alternative to “boring aliveness” seem attractive.1997, Jacqueline Foertsch, “The Bomb Next Door: Four Postwar Alterapocalyptics”, in Genre, page 346:
- [Aimee Semple] McPherson’s sexier half becomes the object of Jim [Morrison]’s obsession, and as the two struggle to find each other in this disordered land, their wild, careening chase through a dozen dystopiae recalls imagined worlds as diverse as Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange and Terry Gilliam’s movie Brazil.1999, Mick Farren, Jim Morrison’s Adventures in the Afterlife, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, front flap – back flap:
- Recollections tattooed with stiletto reasons and a sorrowful slant of light admitting of dystopiae already petrified in progress.2003, Judith Fitzgerald, Adagios: Iphigenia’s Song, Oberon Press, →ISBN, page 50:
- Its function is to legitimate that particular form of moral tribalism based on the “pedagogy of hatred” that [Evgeny] Zamiatin and [George] Orwell described so brilliantly in their dystopiae.2003, Luciano Pellicani, Revolutionary Apocalypse: Ideological Roots of Terrorism, Westport, Conn.; London: Praeger, →ISBN, page 233:
- The patient suffers from adrenal dystopia.
- 2. Dystopiæ of separate organs.1899, Joshua M. Van Cott, Jr., “Pathology of the Fœtus—Anomalies of the Fœtus”, in Charles Jewett, editor, The Practice of Obstetrics by American Authors, New York, N.Y.; Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea Brothers & Co., part V (Pathology of Pregnancy), page 325:
3 more examples
- Davis, J. E. (J. Urol., Vol. xx-155, 1928), writing on the surgical pathology of malformation in the kidneys and ureters, classifies these anomalies into three groups: (a) anomalies of position (dystopiae).1930 January 16, The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 202, number 3, page 126, column 1:
- While harelips were mostly associated with dystopiae of the incisor teeth, median jaw fusion was accompanied by characteristic dental fusion.1968, Walter Ritter, Kraniofaziale Dysplasien und Störungen der Zahnentwicklung:
- Surgical treatment of congenital testicular dystopiae. (B. Kleinteich et al.) Zentralbl. Chir. 1979, 104, 736.1979, British Journal of Urology, page xlv:
- Derived terms
- dystopia canthorum, dystopian, dystopic