degenerados

Degenerados is the plural form of the Spanish adjective degenerado, used to describe people perceived as morally or biologically degenerate. The term carries strong pejorative connotations and is often employed as an insult or stigmatizing label in everyday speech and some historical contexts.

Etymology: The word derives from degenerar, from Latin degenerare, combining de- (down, away) with generare (to beget, produce). The noun and adjective degenerado and degenerados emerged to refer to people considered to deviate from a standard of merit or normality.

Historical usage: In criminology, psychiatry, and eugenics from the 19th to early 20th centuries, degenerate was used to categorize individuals or groups deemed biologically or morally inferior. Publications and policies of that era sometimes labeled criminals, the poor, or those with perceived hereditary flaws as degenerados, reinforcing stigma and social exclusion. Modern scholarship critiques these essentialist and discriminatory notions and highlights their social harm.

Contemporary usage: In modern Spanish, degenerado remains highly pejorative and is rarely used in formal or respectful discourse. It may appear in literature or media to convey a character’s villainy or in colloquial speech as a strong insult, but it is generally avoided in objective or non-stigmatizing writing. When precision is required, more specific and non-pejorative terms are preferred.

See also: degeneración, degeneración moral, degeneracy.