Pejoratives[1] are words or grammatical forms which denote a negative affect; that is, they express the contempt or distaste of the speaker. Sometimes a term may begin as a pejorative word and eventually be adopted in a non-pejorative sense. In historical linguistics Modern historical linguistics dates from the late 18th century and grew out of the earlier discipline of philology, the study of ancient texts and documents, which goes back to antiquity, this phenomenon is known as melioration, or amelioration, or semantic change Semantic change, also known as semantic shift or semantic progression describes the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations (e.g. "punk The punk subculture is a subculture based around punk rock. It includes music, ideologies, fashion, visual art, dance, literature and film. The punk scene is composed of an assortment of smaller factions that distinguish themselves from one another through unique variations. Several of these factions have developed out of punk to become"). Within some social groups a particular term is still regarded as being a pejorative, whereas the term isn't deemed as such within another social group elsewhere (e.g. "gay"). An example of this is the term "Mormon", which was first used in the 1830s as a pejorative to describe those who followed Joseph Smith and believed in the divine origin of the Book of Mormon. The term was soon adopted by Mormons themselves, however, and has lost its generally pejorative status. In other cases, some social groups have attempted to "reclaim" formerly offensive words applied against them, known as reclaimed words A reclaimed word is a word in a language that was at one time a pejorative but has been brought back into acceptable usage—usually starting within the communities that experienced oppression under that word, but often also among the general populace as well. Ethnic slurs The following is a list of ethnic slurs that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical or disrespectful), pejorative (disapproving or contemptuous), or insulting manner in the English-speaking world. For the purposes of this list, an ethnic slur is a term are one kind of category of pejorative.
Word Origin & History
pejorative = "depreciative, disparaging," 1882, from Fr. péjoratif (fem. péjorative), from L.L. pejoratus, pp. of pejorare "make worse," from L. pejor "worse," related to pessimus "worst," pessum "downward, to the ground." Eng. had pejorate "to worsen" from 1644.[2]
See also
- Approbative, or positive affect
References
- ^ Prejorative on Dictionary.com
- ^ Douglas, Harper (12 Jan 2010). "Online Etymology Dictionary". http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pejorative.
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MOJO (blog)
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