Pejorative
Apejorativeword, phrase,slur,orderogatory termis awordor grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack ofrespecttoward someone or something.[1]It is also used to expresscriticism,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 (orvice versa) in some or all contexts.
Etymology
[edit]The wordpejorativeis derived from aLate Latinpast participle stem ofpeiorare,meaning "to make worse", frompeior"worse".[2]
Pejoration and melioration
[edit]Inhistorical linguistics,the process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form ofsemantic driftknown aspejoration.An example of pejoration is the shift in meaning of the wordsillyfrom 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 theeuphemism treadmill,for example as in the successive pejoration of the termsbog-house,privy-house,latrine,water closet,toilet,bathroom,andrestroom(US English).[4][5]
When a term begins as pejorative and eventually is adopted in a non-pejorative sense, this is calledmeliorationoramelioration.One example is the shift in meaning of the wordnicefrom meaning a person was foolish to meaning that a person is pleasant.[6]When performed deliberately, it is described asreclamationorreappropriation.[7]Examples of a word that has been reclaimed by portions of the community that it targets isqueer,faggotanddykewhich 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 theracial slurnigger(specifically the-avariant) byAfrican Americansis 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.[10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"Pejorative".Dictionary.com.Archivedfrom the original on Mar 21, 2016.Retrieved2012-04-25.
- ^"Pejorative (adj.)".Online Etymology Dictionary.RetrievedOctober 16,2016.
- ^Horobin, Simon (March 31, 2021)."Five words that don't mean what you think they do".The Conversation.Archivedfrom the original on April 5, 2021.Retrieved2021-04-05.
- ^Stollznow, Karen (2020-08-11)."Ableist Language and the Euphemism Treadmill".Cambridge University Press.Retrieved2021-04-06.
- ^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.
- ^Nordquist, Richard (3 October 2019)."Amelioration (word meanings)".ThoughtCo.Archivedfrom the original on Jan 18, 2021.Retrieved2021-04-06.
- ^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.ISSN1937-7029.
Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s).
- ^Perlman, Merrill (2019-01-22)."How the word 'queer' was adopted by the LGBTQ community".Columbia Journalism Review.Retrieved2021-07-12.
- ^Druhan, Colin (2019-03-06)."Our complicated relationship with the term queer".IN Magazine.Retrieved2021-07-12.
- ^Higson, Rachel (2017-09-28)."Considering the N-Word: To Reject or Reclaim?".Prindle Institute.Retrieved2023-03-12.
Further reading
[edit]- Croom, Adam M. (2011). "Slurs".Language Sciences.33(3): 343–358.doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2010.11.005.
- Croom, Adam M. (2014)."Remarks on 'The Semantics of Racial Slurs'".Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations.Vol. 13, no. 1. pp. 11–32.
- Croom, Adam M. (January 2014)."The Semantics of Slurs: A Refutation of Pure Expressivism".Language Sciences.41, Part B: 227–242.doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2013.07.003.
- Henderson, Anita (Spring 2003). "What's in a Slur?".American Speech.Vol. 78, no. 1.Project MUSE.pp. 52–74.
External links
[edit]
Media related toPejorativesat Wikimedia Commons- "Pejorative Language".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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