Like many fantasy writers, Collins has invented some new vocabulary of her own.
An avox is akin to a slave – someone who has been punished for a ‘crime’ and thereby made a mute servant. Her reason for choosing this word is simple: the Greek prefix ‘a’ means ‘without’ and the Latin ‘vox’ means ‘voice’ so avox literally means ‘without voice’.
The Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee also uses propos to mean propaganda spots: this could come from propos (meaning ‘remark or thesis’), from French propos meaning ‘subject’.
As a Gamemaker Plutarch would also be in charge of unleashing muttations (or mutts) into the Hunger Games arena. These range from terrifying mutant beasts to seemingly harmless eavesdroppers.
Mutt, if from mutant, is derived from the Latin mutare (to change) but mutt itself stems from muttonhead meaning ‘a dull or stupid person’, colloquial in the US and first cited in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1803.
The names of the mutts themselves are also quite inventive. A jabberjay is a genetically enhanced bird that can eavesdrop and recount entire enemy conversations in a mimic of the real voice. Jays are a common bird and using alliteration is, like rhyme, a nice naming format as it becomes more memorable. Jabber – of onomatopoeic origin and first cited as a noun in the OED in Gulliver’s Travels in 1735 – meaning to talk a lot, makes it clear what the purpose of this mutt is. Jabberjays are said to have mated with mockingbirds thereby creating a new subspecies – the mockingjay. Mockingjay becomes a nickname for Katniss as the face of the rebellion and the double sense of the word mocking makes it an apt choice for challenging the rule of the Capitol.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/the-language-of-the-hunger-games/
An avox is akin to a slave – someone who has been punished for a ‘crime’ and thereby made a mute servant. Her reason for choosing this word is simple: the Greek prefix ‘a’ means ‘without’ and the Latin ‘vox’ means ‘voice’ so avox literally means ‘without voice’.
The Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee also uses propos to mean propaganda spots: this could come from propos (meaning ‘remark or thesis’), from French propos meaning ‘subject’.
As a Gamemaker Plutarch would also be in charge of unleashing muttations (or mutts) into the Hunger Games arena. These range from terrifying mutant beasts to seemingly harmless eavesdroppers.
Mutt, if from mutant, is derived from the Latin mutare (to change) but mutt itself stems from muttonhead meaning ‘a dull or stupid person’, colloquial in the US and first cited in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1803.
The names of the mutts themselves are also quite inventive. A jabberjay is a genetically enhanced bird that can eavesdrop and recount entire enemy conversations in a mimic of the real voice. Jays are a common bird and using alliteration is, like rhyme, a nice naming format as it becomes more memorable. Jabber – of onomatopoeic origin and first cited as a noun in the OED in Gulliver’s Travels in 1735 – meaning to talk a lot, makes it clear what the purpose of this mutt is. Jabberjays are said to have mated with mockingbirds thereby creating a new subspecies – the mockingjay. Mockingjay becomes a nickname for Katniss as the face of the rebellion and the double sense of the word mocking makes it an apt choice for challenging the rule of the Capitol.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/the-language-of-the-hunger-games/