pejoratie

Pejoration is a semantic change in which a word acquires more negative connotations over time. It contrasts with amelioration, where a term shifts toward a more positive or neutral sense. In Romanian linguistics, the term pejoratie refers to this process. In pejoration, the reference may stay largely the same while the emotional load attached to the word becomes more hostile or stigmatizing.

Social factors such as stigma, prejudice, and shifts in power can drive pejoration, as can cognitive processes like metaphor and metonymy. A word may accumulate negative associations through repeated usage, social labeling, or association with prohibited or disreputable domains. Historical trajectories often involve metaphorical extension from danger, illness, or disgrace to general insult.

Examples vary by language. English has several well-known cases; awful originally meant “full of awe” and has come to carry a highly negative sense, while terrific once meant terrifying but is now a positive intensifier. Other terms shift in ways that align with changing social attitudes or taboos, including words that acquire insulting or contemptuous force toward particular groups.

Scholarly study of pejoration appears in historical and sociolinguistics, where researchers use etymological data, diachronic corpora, and semantic prosody to track direction and drivers of change. Pejoration is common but not universal; many words undergo neutral drift or even amelioration, depending on social context and linguistic community.

Related terms include amelioration, semantic change, and dysphemism.