Pejorative#Further reading

The word pejorative is derived from a Late Latin past participle stem of {{Lang|la|peiorare}}, meaning "to make worse", from {{Lang|la|peior}} "worse".{{cite web|title=Pejorative (adj.)|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pejorative|work=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=October 16, 2016}}

{{Further|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.{{Cite web |last=Horobin |first=Simon |date=March 31, 2021 |title=Five words that don't mean what you think they do |url=http://theconversation.com/five-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do-158102 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210405221608/https://theconversation.com/five-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do-158102 |archive-date=April 5, 2021 |access-date=2021-04-05 |website=The Conversation |language=en}} 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).{{Cite web|date=2020-08-11|title=Ableist Language and the Euphemism Treadmill|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2020/08/ableist-language-and-the-euphemism-treadmill/|access-date=2021-04-06|language=en|first=Karen|last=Stollznow}}{{cite book|last=Bell |first=Vicars Walker |title=On Learning the English Tongue |year=1953 |publisher=Faber & Faber |quote=The Honest Jakes or Privy has graduated via Offices to the final horror of Toilet. |page=19}}

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.{{Cite web |last=Nordquist |first=Richard |date=3 October 2019 |title=Amelioration (word meanings) |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/amelioration-word-meanings-1689082 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118133056/https://www.thoughtco.com/amelioration-word-meanings-1689082 |archive-date=Jan 18, 2021 |access-date=2021-04-06 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}} When performed deliberately, it is described as reclamation or reappropriation.{{Cite journal|last=Brontsema|first=Robin|date=2004-06-01|title=A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation|journal=Colorado Research in Linguistics|volume=17|issue=1|doi=10.25810/dky3-zq57|issn=1937-7029|quote=Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s).}} Examples of a word that has been reclaimed by portions of the community that it targets is queer, faggot and dyke which began being re-appropriated as a positive descriptor in the early 1990s by activist groups.{{Cite web|last=Perlman|first=Merrill|date=2019-01-22|title=How the word 'queer' was adopted by the LGBTQ community|url=https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/queer.php|access-date=2021-07-12|website=Columbia Journalism Review|language=en}} 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.{{Cite web|last=Druhan|first=Colin|date=2019-03-06|title=Our complicated relationship with the term queer|url=https://inmagazine.ca/2019/03/our-complicated-relationship-with-the-term-queer/|access-date=2021-07-12|website=IN Magazine|language=en}} The use of the racial slur nigger (specifically the -a variant) by African Americans is often viewed as another act of reclamation, though much like the latter in the LGBT movement, there exists a vocal subset of people with Sub-Saharan African descent that object to the use of the word under any circumstances.{{Cite web|last=Higson|first=Rachel|date=2017-09-28 |title=Considering the N-Word: To Reject or Reclaim? |url=https://www.prindleinstitute.org/2017/09/considering-n-word-reject-reclaim/ |access-date=2023-03-12|website=Prindle Institute|language=en-US}}

{{div col}}

• Approbative
• Defamation
• Dysphemism
• Fighting words
• Insult
• List of ethnic slurs
• List of religious slurs
• Profanity

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2010.11.005 |title=Slurs |year=2011 |last1=Croom |first1=Adam M. |journal=Language Sciences |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=343–358 }}
• {{cite news|url=http://philpapers.org/rec/CROROQ |author=Croom, Adam M. |title=Remarks on 'The Semantics of Racial Slurs'|work=Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations|volume= 13 |number=1|pages=11–32 |date=2014}}
• {{cite journal|author= Croom, Adam M. |title=The Semantics of Slurs: A Refutation of Pure Expressivism|journal=Language Sciences|volume= 41, Part B|date=January 2014|pages= 227–242|doi = 10.1016/j.langsci.2013.07.003|url=https://philpapers.org/rec/CROTSO-13 |url-access=subscription}}
• {{cite news|author=Henderson, Anita|title=What's in a Slur?|work=American Speech|volume= 78|number= 1|date=Spring 2003|pages=52–74 |publisher= Project MUSE}}

{{Wiktionary|pejorative|slur|derogatory|derisive|dyslogistic}}

• {{Commonscatinline|Pejoratives}}
• {{cite IEP |url-id=pejorati |title=Pejorative Language}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Connotation

Category:Criticisms

Category:Harassment and bullying

Category:Prejudice and discrimination