Brave New World Glossary

Glossary of Terms

A.F.

Annum Ford, the year of our Ford. A dating term which plays on the modern system of naming years after the birth of Christ, by replacing A.D. with A.F.

Alpha

The highest caste in society

Asafetida

A gummy resin with an obnoxious odor

Beta

The second highest caste group. They are allowed to interact with Alphas, but not lower castes such as Epsilons or Gammas.

Bokanovsky Group

A group of identical twins created by dividing a single egg many times. This process is only used on Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons.

Boskage

A mass of trees or shrubs; a thicket

Bottling

The embryos and babies are grown in bottles for nine months rather than in a womb.

Caste System

The society exists as a five-tiered caste system consisting of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Alpha caste members are the ruling elite, with each respective caste becoming progressively less intelligent and smaller in stature.

Centrifugal Bumble-puppy

A game in which children fling a ball onto a platform. The ball then rolls down the interior and lands on a rotating disk that flings the ball in a random direction, at which point the ball must be caught.

Corporeal

Relating to the body

D.H.C. for Central London

The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, the man who leads the students on a tour in the first few chapters

Decanting Room

The room in which the babies are removed from the bottles

Deltas

A mid-level caste of society. They are mostly factory workers and laborers.

Economic Collapse

Part of the period following the Nine Years' War is called the Economic Collapse.

Ectogenesis

Growing something outside of the body rather than inside; in this case growing embryos in bottles rather than in a mother's womb

Epsilons

The lowest caste of the Utopian society. They are malformed and quite stupid.

Fretsawyer

Someone who creates ornamental works

Freud

Society believes that Ford and Freud are the same man, but that Freud is the name Ford used when writing about psychology. In reality Freud is considered the father of modern psychoanalysis.

Gamete

A cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization

Gammas

A low caste in society. They are mostly laborers and menial workers.

Hypnopaedia

Sleep learning, which is part of the conditioning process. Huxley pretends that it was discovered that people could learn ethics while sleeping, and it is used extensively to help teach lessons that ensure social stability.

Malthusian Belt

Thomas Malthus is famous for showing that the world population grows more rapidly than the supply of food. Huxley uses the word to mean a contraceptive, hence limiting the growth in population.

Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning

Pavlov showed that animals can be trained to do something through a system of rewards and punishments. This process is used on all babies to condition them to like or dislike certain objects. It is one of the main conditioning techniques which helps ensure social stability.

Nine Years' War

A war which led to almost total destruction. After a severe economic crisis the world submitted to the World Controllers, who took over and redefined the social order.

Obstacle Golf

One of the adult games

Orgy-porgy

A Solidarity Service hymn and dance which is used to signify the coming together of many people into a unified oneness. It is used during Bernard's Solidarity Service and later when the Savage confronts the crowd.

Phosphorous Recovery

The cremation factories are able to recover 99% of the phosphorous contained in each body, so that it can be reused as a raw material or in fertilizer.

pneumatic

Containing air; Huxley uses the term to mean buxom.

Podsnap's Technique

A way of ripening all the eggs of the ovary at once so that thousands of siblings can be made within a two year period.

Pregnancy Substitute

An intravenous injection that tricks the body into thinking it is pregnant and that balances the hormones

Red Rocket

The transatlantic jetliner

Reimann-surface tennis

An adult game

Savage Reservation

One of the only places left on earth where people remain in a state of nature. The Savages were not considered worth civilizing and were therefore placed in a fenced-off area which contained some of the worst land.

Sibilant

Hissing

Simian

Of, or relating to, apes

Solidarity Service

A ceremony that replaces religion with strong sexual elements

Soma

A narcotic used to create pleasant sensations without any after-effects. The word is actually taken from a drug that exists in India.

Viviparous

Bringing forth live young rather than eggs