unperson
noun, verb
Forms unpersons unpeople unpersoning unpersoned
- noun A person who has been stripped of rights, identity, or humanity. “With his identity stolen, he became an unperson, unable to prove his existence to the government.”
- verb (transitive) To strip (a person) of rights, identity, or humanity; to dehumanize.
Synonyms
Etymology
From un- + person. Coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where it refers to a person who has been executed or has fallen out of favor; whose entire history has been erased.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “unperson”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details