| Definition:
A change in a word's meaning over time which causes it to have an increasingly negative meaning or connotation.
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| Example:
In Old English the word silly meant "blessed" or "holy." In Modern English it means "foolish."
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| Etymology:
The word derives via French from the Latin pejor, worse.
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Oxford English Dictionary: The term's first OED citation in this sense is from 1889: "Their [sc. words'] degeneration (technically termed pejoration;…) is often due to a selection and specialization of some ethically lower connotation which may be implied in them."
(As quoted from the Century Dictionary, 1939: L. H. Gray, Foundations of Language, ix. 259) |