Etymologie, Etimología, Étymologie, Etimologia, Etymology, (griech.) etymología, (lat.) etymologia, (esper.) etimologio
UK Vereinigtes Königreich Großbritannien und Nordirland, Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte, Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord, Regno Unito di Gran Bretagna e Irlanda del Nord, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, (esper.) Britujo
Pejoration, Peyoración, Péjoration, Pegggioramento, Pejoration, (esper.) pejorativoj

Collard (W3)

"Collard" is derived in a round-about way from the given name "Nicholas". In several European languages where the accent tends toward the second syllable in "Ni-chol-as", the first syllable is eventually lost due to lazy pronunciation. It's called "aphetic loss", for example, when the word "esquire" becomes "squire" over time. "Collard" was derived as a pejorative form of "Coll". Other variations are "Colle" (French), "Cola" and "Colao" (Italian), "Colle" (Dutch), "Col" and "Colla" (Flemish).

In phonetics, "apheresis" (British English: "aphaeresis"") is the loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.
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Etymology

"Apheresis" comes from Greek "aphaíresis" from "apo", "away" and "haireo", "to take".

Pejoration (W3)

pejoration

• 1. The process or condition of worsening or degenerating.
• 2. Linguistics: The process by which the meaning of a word becomes negative or less elevated over a period of time, as "silly", which formerly meant "deserving sympathy", "helpless" or "simple", has come to mean "showing a lack of good sense", "frivolous".

ETYMOLOGY: Medieval Latin "peioratio", "peioration-", from Late Latin "peioratus", past participle of "peiorare", "to make worse", from Latin "peior", "worse". See "ped-" in Appendix I.

LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG ( 89 Matches )

• pejoration of "stuff?"
• situation (was: issues; the X from Hell)
• "Nigga" untrademarkable?
• Etymology of "wacko"
• Antedating of " Pinko"
• For some, "Christian" (adj.) no longer includes Lutherans
• Re: dookie
• Re: Ameliorated words of offensive origin
• Re: nigger vs. negro (was: INDIAN vs. INJUN)
• Re: INDIAN vs. INJUN

"Pejoration": A semantic shift which results in a less favorable connotation. For example, the word "villain" originally meant "farm laborer", but now refers to an "evil person" or "hardened criminal".

pejoration

pejoration

pejorative (W3)

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Words can even be pejorative sometimes, sometimes not. Pig, for example, is perfectly normal when applied to pigs, but is pejorative if used to denote a person.
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"pejorative" (adj.) "depreciative", "disparaging", 1888, from French "péjoratif", from Late Latin "peiorat-", past participle stem of "peiorare" "make worse", from Latin "peior" "worse", related to "pessimus" "worst", "pessum" "downward, to the ground", from PIE "*ped-yos-", comparative of root "*ped-" "to walk", "stumble", "impair" (see "peccadillo"). As a noun from 1882. English had a verb "pejorate" "to worsen" from 1640s.

Showing posts with label "Pejorative"

We found 35 dictionaries with English definitions that include the word pejorative:

pejorative, adjective;
1. Tending to make or become worse.
2. Tending to disparage or belittle.
noun: 1. A belittling or disparaging word or expression.

pejorative: disparaging; belittling. (Tuesday May 26)

Today's word is "pejorative".

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"Pejorative" also has a technical meaning in linguistics, where it describes a word whose meaning has shifted over time toward a more negative connotation. One example of this process is the word "silly," which originally meant "helpless" but through a process of "pejoration" has come to mean "foolish or stupid."
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pejorative