Terms of disparagement are pejorative words and phrases which are either intended to be or are often regarded as insulting, impolite or unkind. A word or phrase is pejorative if it implies contempt or disapproval. ... A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... Look up phrase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

While terms with a negative connotation are available for the discussion of many subjects (such as referring to an automobile as a jalopy) this article is limited to disparaging terms for people. Likewise, this article is limited to discussion of the English language. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Types

Some terms (such as soccer mom or farm boy) are disparaging only in a particular context or with a certain intonation and are rarely considered disparaging otherwise. Other terms, such as fag and nigger, have a history and connection to social issues that makes them widely regarded as taboo. In North American social, cultural and political discourse, soccer mom (and less used soccer dad for the male equivalent) refers broadly to a demographic group of women with school-age children. ... Intonation, in linguistics, is the variation of pitch when speaking. ... Look up faggot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Nigger is a term used to refer to dark-skinned peoples, especially people of African ancestry or Negroid, and is regarded as an offensive slur. ... A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) against words, objects, actions, discussions, or people that are considered undesirable by a group, culture, or society. ...

Many disparaging terms are synecdoches, such as mick, paddy, and taig, all of which are derived from Irish first names and are applied disparagingly to Irish people. Synecdoches can range from barely pejorative (i.e. referring to businesspeople as suits) to inflammatory (i.e referring to German-speaking people as Nazis). Look up synecdoche in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Mick or Mic is a short form of the popular Irish forename Michael and is used extensively throughout Ireland. ... Paddy has these meanings:- A paddy field, a field for cultivating rice or other semi-aquatic crops. ... Taig (also Teague) is a slang term used by some in Scotland and Northern Ireland to refer to Irish Roman Catholics. ... The Irish are a European ethnic group who originated in Ireland, in north western Europe. ... A businessperson with some of the typical accoutrements of her or his profession: briefcase and mobile phone. ... Suits from the 1937 Chicago Woolen Mills catalog At the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 heads of state wore morning dress or lounge suits for more informal meetings but frock coats for formal daytime meetings A suit, with varieties such as a business suit, three-piece suit... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ...

When applied to people, abbreviations are often regarded as disparaging. Referring to a Pakistani as a paki, a Japanese person as a jap or an Inuit as a skimo (short for Eskimo) are three examples. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Wikipedia is not a dictionary: WP:WINAD If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... Look up Jap in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Inuit (disambiguation). ... Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic. ...

Other terms of disparagement are based upon sarcasm (such as sahib is sometimes used to refer to Indians), metaphor (as is the basis of the term white trash), metalepsis (as in the term wetback), zoomorphism (a partial basis for the slur porch monkey) or other figures of speech. Sarcasm from Greek sarkasmos, to tear flesh is sneering, jesting, or mocking a person, situation or thing. ... Sahib (the female form is memsahib or sahiba) is a Hindi and Bengali word meaning sir, master or Lord. ... Look up metaphor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... White trash is racial slur with a classist component targeted almost exclusively at non-Latino white people and connoting low social status or poor prospects (i. ... Metalepsis is a figure of speech in which one thing is referenced by something else which is only remotely associated with it. ... Wetback or Wetbacks is a term for a Mexican laborer who, in order to obtain usually laborious work in the United States, illegally enters the country by either swimming or wading across the Rio Grande. ... Zoomorphic decoration from the Book of Kells Zoomorphism, from Greek ζωον zōon, meaning animal, and μορφη, morphē, meaning shape or form, refers to the representation of animal forms in ornaments, or to the representation of gods in the form, or with attributes, of non-human animals, and also to the transformation... The following is a list of ethnic slurs that are, or have been, used to refer to members of a given ethnicity (or in some cases, nationality, region or religion) in a derogatory or pejorative manner. ...

Terms of disparagement also may combine figures of speech. For example, the term yid is an abbreviation of Yiddish and is as a synecdoche applied Jews who neither speak Yiddish nor have a strong connection to Ashkenazi culture. Yid or Yids may refer to: Yid, a Jewish ethnonym Yid, a nickname for a fan of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. the real name of daniel kid tovey. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... Languages Yiddish Religions Judaism Related ethnic groups Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and other Jewish ethnic divisions Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (Standard Hebrew: sing. ...

Some derogatory terms, such as schmuck and cunt, originate as terms for parts of the human anatomy (in this case, the foreskin and vagina, respectively). // The word schmuck has become common in American English meaning a detestable person, or a jerk. ... Cunt is an English vulgarism most commonly used in reference to the female genitalia or, more generally, the region extending from the mons veneris to the perineum and inward from the labia into the vagina. ... The foreskin or prepuce (a technically broader term that also includes the clitoral hood, the homologous structure in women) is a retractable double-layered fold of skin and mucous membrane that covers the glans penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect. ... The vagina, (from Latin, literally sheath or scabbard ) is the tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. ...

Medical terms have been known to become terms of disparagement as well, such as idiot and retard (both of which were used by doctors to refer to people with low IQs or developmental disabilities). Idiot is a word derived from the Greek , idiōtēs (person lacking professional skill, a private citizen, individual), from , idios (private, ones own).[1] In Latin the word idiota (ordinary person, layman) preceded the Late Latin meaning uneducated or ignorant person. ... Mental retardation (also called mental handicap[1] and, as defined by the UK Mental Health Act 1983, mental impairment and severe mental impairment[2]) is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills (milestones) during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual...

Other profane words have been merged with derogatory nouns to come up with new disparaging terms, such as fucktard. An individual who in constantly making a pain of them selves to others. ...

Use

Etiquette demands that the use of these terms, like any behavior likely to insult someone, should be avoided in most circumstances. Etiquette, also known as decorum, is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm. ... An insult is a statement or action which affronts or demeans someone. ...

Sociologists point to derisive language as an indicator of flawed reasoning about the character or motivation of others. Though insults are common, and often used in jest, a fundamental axiom of sociology recognizes that derogatory forms of speech make erroneous attributions about the character of a person. Scholars classify the erroneous assumptions as the fundamental attribution error. This article provides a list of noted sociologists and major contributors to sociology (even if they did not primarily work as sociologists): Contents: Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z... An insult is a statement or action which affronts or demeans someone. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or overattribution effect and frequently confused with the actor-observer bias) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional, or personality-based, explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational...

A few disparaging terms have been appropriated by some members of the demographic group they describe. The usage of these terms, including discussion about who can use them and when, is a subject of hot debate in many arenas Demography is the study of human population dynamics. ...

Terms of disparagement may or may not be fighting words. The fighting words doctrine, in United States constitutional law, is a limitation to freedom of speech as granted in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution In its 9-0 decision, Chaplinsky v. ...

See also

• Lists of disparaging terms