Pejoration

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A pejoration , pejoration ( Latin peior "worse") or deterioration of meaning is in linguistics the change in meaning of a word towards a worse connotation. The opposite of pejoration is melioration .

Basics

Pejoration need not refer to the terminology itself. A classic German-language example of this is the term woman for 'woman', which has never changed the actual meaning, but only the judgmental connotation , while prostitute changed the term for “girl” (girl → prostitute). A word that has become so solidified in its pejoration that it is only considered pejorative or even a swear word becomes a pejorative itself .

The use of a linguistic expression in pejorative, disparaging use as a rhetorical stylistic device is called dysphemism . The opposite is euphemism .

The hypothesis of the euphemism treadmill says that new designations used for upgrading inevitably "wear out" towards the pejorative if the negative connotation of what is designated continues. Pejoration and the opposite, melioration , can also shift a word back and forth over time, as the development of the meaning of the term geil shows. This originally positive word in the meaning of 'fat (-haltig)' in the sense of 'nutritious, lush' ( lustful instinct ) first acquired the meaning 'voluptuous, lustful' when used pejoratively and finally the meaning 'well-liked, appealing' in the current one Teenage slang.

Examples

  • Social roles:
    • Pfaffe (to pastor ) was a neutral term for priests in Middle High German .
    • Regime , which used to be a general term for a government or a form of government, is used today as the expression for a “government caste” that is not legitimized by the population; originated from the post-revolutionary expression ancien régime .
    • Woman , old term for woman , today a derogatory word; in some Bavarian-Austrian Dialects is Weiberleit but still parallel to Månerleit used.
    • But the term woman moves up. Originally the name of the nobility parallel to gentleman , it became a general term whose position that of lady (lat. Domina : "landlady") takes.
    • Dirne is an old word for girls (Oberdt. Dirndl : also the name for a "traditional dress", also in Low German as Deern ); later for maid, that is, a farm worker ( maid like maiden from Maid : "virgin", compare English maiden ). In the 19th century the term changed in meaning to whore.
    • In common : In the past, the term "usually" used in the sense of how today in terms of "Common People", "general", jointly can see. Today the word is used synonymously for "mean" or "malicious".
    • Stupid used to mean frail, weak or tender.
  • Ethnophaulisms (Pejorative Ethnonyms) and other ethnic group names:
    • Mohammedans , originally a neutral term for followers of the teachings of Mohammed . Since it was superseded by the word Muslim or Muslim , however, it has mostly assumed a derogatory or negative character. The older Muselmann is also pejorative. Nowadays the term Muslim ispreferred as a self-designation.
    • Neger , as Germanism to Latin niger : "black", since the 18th century, was used freely in scholarly and everyday language until the 1970s. Through the use of the extremely offensive word nigger in English as well as the agreement of racial theories in ethnology, the word is nowperceivedas politically incorrect or discriminatory.
    • Sect , formerly general for a religious minority; In the final report of the Enquête Commission so -called sects and psycho-groups , it is recommended that this term no longer be used in dealing with new religious movements , as it is historically too burdened.
  • Economic-social terms:
    • Cheap , earlier with the meaning of fair rather positive connotation (compare approve : "approve", or the phrase "That is only right and cheap "), for example for a price that was perceived as fair and does not require trade, Still used in legal language today in this sense (cf. Equity ). With industrialization , inferior and short-lived items were often offered and advertised at cheap (fair) prices, which gave cheap a negative rating - and was later replaced by inexpensive .
    • Moneten (lat. Moneta : "coin money") functions colloquially in German today as a term for money in the sense of a target of criminal acts. The Latin origin, however, has been preserved neutrally in the word monetary and in the scientific term monetarism .
  • References to physicality:
    • fuck , original meaning: move back and forth, rub.
    • Feces , originally simply a synonym for “loam”, “dirt” (cf. fender ), today with the meaning of faeces .
    • Visage , taken from French, there completely neutral for 'face' (original use preserved by Visagist ), used in German colloquial language nowadays disparagingly.
  • Others:
    • Gift , originally synonymous with "gift", "gift" (cf. dowry or Dutch or English gift ) was used euphemistically for "deadly gift" in Old High German. Both meanings existed in parallel until the 18th century, with the gender for the meaning of “harmful substance” changing from masculine to neuter in the 15th and 16th centuries. The starting point for pejoration was the euphemistic use of the term. It finally takes on the meaning of what it is supposed to be concealing. The etymology of French poison (also the origin of English poison ), which is derived from the Latin potio : drink, is also a similar development of the term poison .

See also

literature

  • Jörg Meibauer: Introduction to German Linguistics , Stuttgart 2002
  • Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language . 4th edition; Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar, 2010, ISBN 3-476-02335-4
  • Gerd Fritz: Historical Semantics , Stuttgart 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wolfgang Müller: The dictionary of counterwords: a contrasting dictionary with instructions for use . De Gruyter, Berlin 1998, ISBN 978-3-11-014640-0 , p. 402.