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Date Posted: 17:58:51 11/19/05 Sat
Author: Cele"Vizzini"baelin
Subject: Inconceivable!
In reply to: manwitch 's message, "Re: Actually it does" on 05:19:24 11/19/05 Sat

Having recently used pejorative on the board (http://www.voy.com/14567/19296.html), although I misspelled it as “perjorative” I have to say that I was not entirely comfortable with it but, like manwitch, didn’t actually bother going so far as to track it down in a dictionary of any sort. Since this has come up as a subject of debate I’ve had a good reason to check on its precise meaning. My error stemmed from the fact that that I associated the word with perjury, incorrectly as it turns out.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=p&p=9

pejorative

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pejorativehttp://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pejorative

"depreciative, disparaging," 1882, from Fr. péjoratif (fem. péjorative), from L.L. pejoratus, pp. of pejorare "make worse," from L. pejor "worse," related to pessimus "worst," pessum "downward, to the ground." Eng. had pejorate "to worsen" from 1644.

perjury

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=perjuryhttp://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=perjury

1387, "act of swearing to a statement known to be false," via Anglo-Fr. parjurie (1292) and O.Fr. parjurie, both from L. perjurium "false oath," from perjurare "swear falsely," from per- "away, entirely" + jurare "to swear" (see jury (n.)). The verb perjure is attested from 1453 (implied in perjured).

By luck and with the aid of a certain amount of familiarity I did however use the word in the correct context, a source of some small comfort to me. Finally having bothered to look it up there’s now a remote chance I won’t make that mistake again

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=pejorative

adj.
1. Tending to make or become worse.
2. Disparaging; belittling.

n.
A disparaging or belittling word or expression.

adj : expressing disapproval; "dyslogistic terms like `nitwit' and `scalawag'" [syn: dyslogistic, dislogistic]
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

So there we have it, the “bad” of “John is bad” may well not be pejorative in that it may be true but the “lousy” of “John is lousy” most often is pejorative, although it might not be depending on personal hygiene. That’ll teach me not to write posts without spell-checking them first, actually it won’t but it does serve as a warning of the pitfalls.

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