Crossword clues for pejorative
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pejorative \Pe*jor"a*tive\, a. [F. p['e]joratif, fr. L. pejor, used as compar. of malus evil.] Implying or imputing evil; depreciatory; disparaging; unfavorable.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"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.
Wiktionary
a. disparaging, belittling or derogatory. n. A disparaging, belittle, or derogatory word or expression.
WordNet
adj. expressing disapproval; "dyslogistic terms like `nitwit' and `scalawag'" [syn: dyslogistic, dislogistic]
Wikipedia
A pejorative (also called a derogatory term, a term of abuse, or a term of disparagement) is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative connotation, a low opinion of someone or something, or showing a lack of respect for someone or something. It is also used as criticism, hostility, disregard and/or disrespect. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social or cultural groups but not in others. Sometimes, a term may begin as a pejorative and eventually be adopted in a non-pejorative sense (or vice versa) in some or all contexts.
Name slurs can also involve an insulting or disparaging innuendo, rather than being a direct pejorative. In some cases, a person's name can be redefined with an unpleasant or insulting meaning, or applied to a group of people considered by the majority to be inferior or lower in social class, as a group label with a disparaging meaning. Also, an ethnic slur or racial slur can be pejorative and to imply people of those groups are inferior or deficient.
Usage examples of "pejorative".
Originally a pejorative term for a gay male, it is now being reclaimed by some gay men.
Lobby: term used as a pejorative by Second Amendment opponents to characterize those promoting civil rights protections for hunters and sportsmen.
They had been foremost in damning Dundas with their sly, pejorative words, their judgment of his character, wise after the event.
PAI: Are you implying that there is something pejorative in the use of the word amateur?
Westerling word having a number of pejorative meanings: insane, evil, homicidal, alien baby-eater, and endless variations on that theme.
Nasty Pootem Wooky Barn-Bams, unquote, whatever family-code pejorative this signified.
Pap smears, addressing the nubile Madame Psychosis in progressively puerile baby-talk and continuing to use her childhood diminutive like Pookie or Putti as he attempted to dissuade her from accepting a scholarship to a Boston University whose Film and Film-Cartridge Studies Program was, he apparently maintained, full of quote Nasty Pootem Wooky Barn-Bams, unquote, whatever family-code pejorative this signified.
In everyday usage, avidya is sometimes called both sin and ignorance, but these pejorative terms hide the essence of the truth, which is that all such obstacles exist in consciousness and can be cleared away.
Apparently issues were complicated by the fact that Madame Psychosis emerged from puberty as an almost freakishly beautiful young woman, especially in a part of the United States where poor nutrition and indifference to dentition and hygiene made physical beauty an extremely rare and sort of discomfiting condition, one in no way shared by Madame Psychosis's toothless and fireplug-shaped mother, who said not a word as Madame Psychosis's father interdicted everything from brassieres to Pap smears, addressing the nubile Madame Psychosis in progressively puerile baby-talk and continuing to use her childhood diminutive like Pookie or Putti as he attempted to dissuade her from accepting a scholarship to a Boston University whose Film and Film-Cartridge Studies Program was, he apparently maintained, full of quote Nasty Pootem Wooky Barn-Bams, unquote, whatever family-code pejorative this signified.
Warhol scrupulously abstains from pejorative judgments: "It's so nice, whatever it is.
The rest could be described as onomatopoesy, semantically null but highly emotional-that is to say, cursing, pejoratives, and improbable insults in several languages-"
Miro often wondered, but never dared to ask, if she had any pejoratives for humans.
The media had a bonanza, capturing red-faced, spluttering professors hurling pejoratives from the floor, the AAAS president pulping a file folder on the edge of his table as he shouted for order, and Sariena at the podium, quiet and dignified, waiting while one mêlée after another erupted and subsided.
Then he met some slut from Penn Hills - and I mean a real slut, one more than happy to stoop for the troops, bang for the gang, pick your pejorative.
The mood of the nation was changing, the crust of the benevolent Great Society beginning to crack, the lesions initiated with code words coined by the Nixon boys, such as the Silent Majority and Bums-on-Welfare and the pejorative them.