Pejorative

A pejorative word or phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something.[1] It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a term is regarded as pejorative in some social or ethnic groups but not in others or may be originally pejorative but later adopt a non-pejorative sense (or vice versa) in some or all contexts.

"Name slur" redirects here. For other uses of slur, see Slur (disambiguation).

Etymology

The word pejorative is derived from a Late Latin past participle stem of peiorare, meaning "to make worse", from peior "worse".[2]

Pejoration and melioration
Further information: Semantic drift

In historical linguistics, the process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form of semantic drift known as pejoration. An example of pejoration is the shift in meaning of the word silly from meaning that a person was happy and fortunate to meaning that they are foolish and unsophisticated.[3] The process of pejoration can repeat itself around a single concept, leaping from word to word in a phenomenon known as the euphemism treadmill, for example as in the successive pejoration of the terms bog-house, privy-house, latrine, water closet, toilet, bathroom and restroom (US English).[4][5]

When a term begins as pejorative and eventually is adopted in a non-pejorative sense, this is called melioration or amelioration. One example is the shift in meaning of the word nice from meaning a person was foolish to meaning that a person is pleasant.[6] When performed deliberately, it is described as reclamation or reappropriation.[7] An example of a word that has been reclaimed by portions of the community that it targets is queer, which began being re-appropriated as a positive descriptor in the early 1990s by activist groups.[8] However, due to its history and – in some regions – continued use as a pejorative, there remain LGBT individuals who are uncomfortable with having this term applied to them.[9] The use of the nigga (specifically the -a variant) by black Americans is often viewed as another act of reclamation, though much like queer in the LGBT movement, there exist a vocal subsect of black people that object to the use of the word under any circumstances.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Pejorative". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on Mar 21, 2016. Retrieved 2012-04-25.
  2. "Pejorative (adj.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  3. Horobin, Simon (March 31, 2021). "Five words that don't mean what you think they do". The Conversation. Archived from the original on April 5, 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  4. Stollznow, Karen (2020-08-11). "Ableist Language and the Euphemism Treadmill". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  5. Bell, Vicars Walker (1953). On Learning the English Tongue. Faber & Faber. p. 19. The Honest Jakes or Privy has graduated via Offices to the final horror of Toilet.
  6. Nordquist, Richard (3 October 2019). "Amelioration (word meanings)". ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on Jan 18, 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  7. Brontsema, Robin (2004-06-01). "A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation". Colorado Research in Linguistics. 17 (1). doi:10.25810/dky3-zq57. ISSN 1937-7029. Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s).
  8. Perlman, Merrill (2019-01-22). "How the word 'queer' was adopted by the LGBTQ community". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  9. Druhan, Colin (2019-03-06). "Our complicated relationship with the term queer". IN Magazine. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  10. Higson, Rachel (2017-09-28). "Considering the N-Word: To Reject or Reclaim?". Prindle Institute. Retrieved 2023-03-12.

Further reading
Look up pejorative, slur, derogatory, derisive, or dyslogistic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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