PEJORATION

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | Date: 1998

PEJORATION. A term in LINGUISTICS for the process of SEMANTIC CHANGE in which there is a depreciation or ‘downward’ shift in the meaning of a word, phrase, or lexeme: for example, Old English cnafa (boy: compare German Knabe) became Modern English knave someone dishonest; Latin villanus (a farm servant) became Middle English vilain/vilein (a serf with some rights of independence), then Modern English villain (a scoundrel, criminal). See MELIORATION.


© Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press 1998.

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