Pejorative

Lore & Background

In historical linguistics, the process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form of semantic drift known as pejoration. An example 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. 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). 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. When performed deliberately, it is described as reclamation or reappropriation. 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. 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. The use of the racial slur nigger (specifically the -a variant) by African Americans is often viewed as another act of reclamation, though some people of sub-Saharan African descent object to the use of the word under any circumstances.

Reader's Guide

Pejoratives are significant in linguistics and social discourse because they illustrate how language can encode and perpetuate negative attitudes, and how meanings shift over time. The concept of pejoration shows that words once neutral or positive can acquire derogatory senses, as seen with silly. The euphemism treadmill demonstrates how attempts to avoid pejorative terms can lead to successive replacements that themselves become pejorative. Conversely, melioration shows that pejorative terms can become neutral or positive, as with nice. Reclamation, a deliberate form of melioration, allows marginalized groups to repurpose slurs as positive or neutral self-identifiers, as with queer and the -a variant of nigger. However, the article notes that such reclamation is not universally accepted, even within the targeted communities. The study of pejoratives thus reveals the dynamic relationship between language, power, and identity, and the ongoing negotiation of meaning in social contexts.

Did You Know?

• The word pejorative is derived from a Late Latin past participle stem of peiorare, meaning 'to make worse'.
• 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.
• The euphemism treadmill is illustrated by the successive pejoration of terms such as bog-house, privy-house, latrine, water closet, toilet, bathroom, and restroom.
• The word queer began being re-appropriated as a positive descriptor in the early 1990s by activist groups.