Pejoratives are terms which have a negative
connotation. Sometimes a term may begin as a pejorative word and eventually be adopted in a non-pejorative sense.
Quaker, Yankee,
Okie,
Tory and
Whig,
Ham radio,
Christian,
Protestant,
Methodist,
Shaker,
Unitarian,
Sooner, and
Liberal were originally
slang insults but came to be used as non-pejorative standard words. In
historical linguistics, this phenomenon is known as
melioration, or
amelioration, or
semantic change. Sometimes a term is still considered as a pejorative word by some but not by others (e.g. "
Squaw"). In other cases, some groups have attempted to "reclaim" formerly offensive words applied against them (
reclaimed word).
Ethnic slurs are one kind of category of pejorative.
See also
