Aesopian Language is communications that convey an innocent meaning to outsiders but hold a concealed meaning to informed members of a conspiracy or underground movement. For instance, Person X is known for exposing secrets in an organization, so the organization leaders announce, "any members who have dirty talking habits will be dealt with", warning Person X. It is based in reference to Aesop

Aesop

Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...

. It is referred to by Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...

 in his book One-Dimensional Man

One-Dimensional Man

One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society is a book written by philosopher Herbert Marcuse, first published in 1964....

 where it is used somewhat interchangeably with Orwellian

Orwellian

"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...

 language.

In this context Aesopian Language refers to the idea that certain usages of language work to 'suppress certain concepts or keep them out of the general discourse within society'. An example of such a technique is the use of abbreviations to possibly prevent undesirable questions from arising, e.g., "AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...

 entombs the radical political differences which once separated the two organizations."

Within the context of Australian politics a term with very similar meaning is called dog-whistle politics

Dog-whistle politics

Dog-whistle politics, also known as the use of code words, is a type of political campaigning or speechmaking which employs coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup of the audience...

, which describes the use of coded language to address voters' interests. Certain sections of the electorate who will react strongly to controversial content if spoken of overtly, but may not be so attuned that they notice statements that appear neutral to outsiders. Dog-whistle politics uses phrases that speak to a sub-group without alarming the general population. For example, a politician may signal race or immigration views by using the phrase illegal arrivals to describe refugee

Refugee

A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

-claimants.