On 8/23/06, charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com wrote:
It was once pointed out to me that, pedantically speaking, pejorative implies position B in an A/B pair, where the denotation is roughly the same but the connotation is that B is worse. Or something. Well, it wasn't explained like that, but 'pejorative' once was like a worse type of comparative.
Presumably it comes from the latin 'peior' "worse". I'm not convinced that etymology helps solves arguments though...:)
Steve