PEJORATIVE
PEJORATIVE [Stress: ‘pe-JAW-ra-tiv’].
1. A term in PHILOLOGY and SEMANTICS that refers to a complex word whose meaning is ‘lower’ than that of its base: princeling, a minor or very young prince.
2. A term in LINGUISTICS and lexicography that refers to an expression, tone, or style that serves to devalue, disparage, or dismiss the subject being talked or written about: illiterate is pejorative when used to describe people who can read and write, but not to a level acceptable to the speaker (What an illiterate scrawl!); Dago, a pejorative nickname that distances and devalues people from or in Iberia and Latin America. Compare DEROGATORY.
1. A term in PHILOLOGY and SEMANTICS that refers to a complex word whose meaning is ‘lower’ than that of its base: princeling, a minor or very young prince.
2. A term in LINGUISTICS and lexicography that refers to an expression, tone, or style that serves to devalue, disparage, or dismiss the subject being talked or written about: illiterate is pejorative when used to describe people who can read and write, but not to a level acceptable to the speaker (What an illiterate scrawl!); Dago, a pejorative nickname that distances and devalues people from or in Iberia and Latin America. Compare DEROGATORY.
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PEJORATIVE