Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 291. The word origin today is Big
Brother. Okay. If somebody wants a screenshot, do right now. Let's get right to it. If someone says
Big Brother, it could have the literal meaning of an older brother. This is the most basic one.
We're going to focus on really the second meaning and the third meaning
in this video. So it can also refer to a leader, authority or government that tries to control
all aspects of one's life. It can also for ... it's also a personification
of a tyrannical or totalitarian government. Remember, personification that's when you give
human qualities to something that is not actually alive like we do with mother nature. You know when
there's storms. You know weather is not really alive, but we call it mother nature to make it
seem like it's alive. You give human qualities to something that's not actually human. Then that's
personification. All right. So personification of tyrannical or totalitarian governments.
Governments that try to control and rule over people completely. Allow them no freedom.
All right. Let's go on. One may also hear this term in the phrase Big Brother is watching you.
The term was coined directly from George Orwell in his famous book called "1984.. " In the novel,
this dystopian totalitarian government called itself Big Brother claiming as though it was
looking after you. Only doing things in your best interests of the people to help them and protect
them. Like a big brother would do in a family. So that was the idea of why they call themselves
Big Brother. Okay. While in truth you know, or in reality
they spied on everyone. They tried to control everyone's thinking by total control of the media,
destroying books, destroying parts of history and rewriting history to create like a new
world. You know where everything ...where they had the control and everybody just adored them
and this way they could totally control everybody. And you know, I've mentioned anytime, I've talked
about George Orwell or 1984 in the past. I read the book I had to read this book in high school
and I actually read it before 1984 and I remember reading at that time thinking well the world's not
that bad, but I often say you know 30 years later or 35 years later we look at it and say oh my God.
There's so much true in this book and we do know that George Orwell knew people in you know,
not only in government but powerful people were trying to control the world. To direct the world
in a certain direction and he was trying to warn people, but he couldn't do it in you know,
like a reality novel he had to do it in like a story to give a warning to the future. So this is
what this was about. Okay. Anyway, let's continue. All right. And so we got four examples of just
how it is used. So, so of course it was invented it was coined by George Orwell. This is the term
and you know, when I was younger too like around you know ... pre-1984 I only heard the
term Big Brother once in a while. But today you hear this term all the time. It's it's
out there. It's everywhere. So let's get into our examples here. The social media companies
collection of their users information and how they use it and sell it is a form of Big Brother
according to some people. All right. Number two. Big Brother is alive and well in, in China with
their social credits point system. Okay. That's just like the type of government that was in his
1984 book. Number three. You need to be careful what you tweet Big Brother is always watching you.
A tweet you made 10 years ago could come back to bite you. And we're seeing this with a lot
of celebrities or even politicians of famous people. Maybe they didn't even think that much
about what they tweeted 10 years ago and somebody found out. You said that. It was oh my God.
You they even though today they may not even think that way anymore, but you know, something you just
said ten years ago maybe without even deep thought could come back to hurt
you. All right. And number four. If Big Brother finds out you've been supporting someone they
don't approve of they might target you and try to punish you. Anyway, I hope you
got it. I hope it was clear. I hope was very informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.