Pejorative
A pejorative (also called a derogatory term,[1] derogative term, a term of abuse, or a term of disparagement) is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative connotation, a low opinion of someone or something, or showing a lack of respect for someone or something.[2] It is also used as a criticism, hostility, disregard and/or disrespect. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social or cultural groups but not in others. Sometimes, a term may begin as a pejorative and eventually be adopted in a non-pejorative sense (or vice versa) in some or all contexts.
Name slurs can also involve an insulting or disparaging innuendo,[3] rather than being a direct pejorative. In some cases, a person's name can be redefined with an unpleasant or insulting meaning, or applied to a group of people considered by the majority to be inferior or lower in social class, as a group label with a disparaging meaning. Also, an ethnic slur or racial slur can be pejorative and to imply people of those groups are inferior or deficient.
Contents
Etymology
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word pejorative is derived from a Late Latin past participle stem of peiorare meaning to "make worse".[4]
Melioration of pejoratives
When a term begins as pejorative and eventually is adopted in a non-pejorative sense, this is called "melioration" in historical linguistics. It may also be called amelioration, reclaiming, or semantic change.[5] Some examples of melioration are "punk" or "dude".
Politically correct pejoratives
Many politically correct terms such as anti-masker, anti-vaxxer, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, flat Earther, hate group, and hate speech have been seen by some as a form of name calling, implying emotionally that opponents are mentally ill or hateful people, often without presenting any evidence for these allegations and ignoring the factual arguments of their opponents.
Notably, political correctness has in itself been criticized for outlawing pejorative terms that were previously considered acceptable, such as slurs towards minority groups, while accepting new ones aimed at majority populations.
See also
 |
Look up pejorative, derisive, derogatory, or dyslogistic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>
Notes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further reading
- Croom, Adam M. "Slurs." Language Sciences, Volume 33, Number 3, May 2011, pp. 343-358. Published by Elsevier.
- Henderson, Anita. "What's in a Slur?" American Speech, Volume 78, Number 1, Spring 2003, pp. 52–74 in Project MUSE
- Croom, Adam M. "Remarks on 'The Semantics of Racial Slurs'". Lingusitic and Philosophical Investigations, 13 (1):11-32 (2014)
- Croom, Adam M. "The Semantics of Slurs: A Refutation of Pure Expressivism". Language Sciences Volume 41, Part B, January 2014, Pages 227–242.
External links
- "Pejorative Language" entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
<templatestyles src="Asbox/styles.css"></templatestyles>
 |
This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
<templatestyles src="Asbox/styles.css"></templatestyles>
 |
This sociology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
