Definition and Examples of Pejoration in Language

Definition and Examples of Pejoration in Language In etymology, pejoration is the minimizing or deterioration of a words significance, as when a word with a positive sense builds up a negative one. Pejoration is substantially more typical than the contrary procedure, called enhancement. Here are a few models and perceptions from different authors: Senseless The word senseless is a great case of pejoration, or slow compounding of importance. In early Middle English (around 1200), sely (as the word was then spelled) implied cheerful, joyful, favored, lucky, as it did in Old English. . . . The first significance was trailed by a progression of smaller ones, including profoundly honored, devout, heavenly, great, blameless, innocuous. . . . As the structure (and elocution) sely changed to senseless during the 1500s, the previous implications went into progressively less great faculties, for example, powerless, weak, unimportant. . . . By the late 1500s, the words use declined to its present-day significance of lacking great sense, dim-witted, silly, absurd, as in This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard (1595, Shakespeare, A Midsummer Nights Dream). (Sol Steinmetz, Semantic Antics: How and Why Words Change Meanings. Irregular House, 2008) Chain of command Chain of command shows a comparative, however increasingly articulated, decay. Initially applied to a request or a large group of holy messengers from the fourteenth century, it has consistently descended the size of being, alluding to an aggregate collection of ministerial rulers from c. 1619, from whence the comparable mainstream sense creates c.1643 (in Miltons tract on separate). . . . Today one every now and again knows about the gathering chain of command, business progressions, and such, signifying just the highest point of the pecking order, not the entire request, and passing on similar subtleties of antagonistic vibe and jealousy inferred in elite.(Geoffrey Hughes, Words in Time: A Social History of the English Vocabulary. Basil Blackwell, 1988) Tactful [U]sing language to turn may decline the importance of the subbed language, a procedure etymologists call pejoration. That has happened to the already harmless descriptive word prudent, when utilized in close to home segments as a code word for unlawful sexual gatherings. An ongoing Wall Street Journal article cited the client care director of a web based dating administration as saying he prohibited the utilization of prudent from his administration since its frequently code for wedded and hoping to dawdle. The site is for singles only.(Gertrude Block, Legal Writing Advice: Questions and Answers. William S. Hein, 2004) Mentality Let me give one last case of this sort of semantic corrosionthe word mentality. . . . Initially, disposition was a specialized term, which means position, present. It moved to mean mental state, method of reasoning (probably whatever was suggested by someones pose). In conversational use, it has since crumbled. Hes got a mentality implies hes got a facing way (most likely uncooperative, opposing); something to be revised by guardians or educators. While once this would have been rendered Hes got an awful disposition or a mentality issue, the negative sense has now become overwhelming.(Kate Burridge, Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History. HarperCollins Australia, 2011)​ Pejoration and Euphemism One explicit source ofâ pejoration is doublespeak . . .: in staying away from some no-no word, speakers may utilize an elective which in time obtains the importance of the first and itself drops out of utilization. In this way, in English, disinformation has supplanted lying in some political settings, where it has as of late been joined by being practical with the truth.(April M. S. McMahon, Understanding Language Change. Cambridge University Press, 1999) Speculations About Pejoration Somewhere in the range of hardly any speculations are possible:Words meaning reasonable have an intrinsic probability to get negative in undertone, frequently exceptionally negative. Lat. [Latin] vilis at a decent cost (for example definitely, low value) typical trashy, terrible, low (its present importance. [Italian], Fr. [French], NE. [Modern English] vile).Words for shrewd, clever, able usually create implications (and in the long run meanings of sharp practice, deceitfulness, etc: . . . NE shrewd deceptively smart is from OE craeftig strong(ly)l skillful(ly) (NHG [New High German] krftig solid; the old sense solid, quality of this group of words blurs right off the bat throughout the entire existence of English, where the typical faculties relate to skill).NE tricky has negative meanings in present-day English, yet in Middle English it implied scholarly, able, master . . ..(Andrew L. Sihler, Language History: An Introduction. John Benjamins, 2000) Articulation: PEDGE-e-RAY-avoid Otherwise called: crumbling, degeneration EtymologyFrom the Latin, more regrettable