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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 27, 2008 is:

pejorative • \pih-JOR-uh-tiv\  • adjective
: having negative connotations; especially : tending to disparage or belittle : depreciatory

Example sentence:
The team's star player has come under fire for making pejorative remarks about women during a magazine interview.

Did you know?
"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Moms have given that good advice for years, but unfortunately many people haven't heeded it. The word "pejorative" makes it clear that both English and Latin speakers have long known that disparaging words can make a bad situation worse. "Pejorative" derives from the Late Latin adjective "pejoratus," which in turn comes from the Latin verb "pejorare," meaning "to make or become worse." Although pejorative words have probably always been part of English, the adjective "pejorative" has only been found in English texts since the late 1880s. Before then, English speakers could rely on older synonyms of "pejorative" such as "derogatory" and "uncomplimentary" to describe disparaging words.

Word of the Day

Kitchen Table Lingo

The English Project's Kitchen Table Lingo – launched 6 June - taps into the public’s fascination with words and word-play…

“We've just wrapped up our week long coverage on this on the breakfast show and we have had literally hundreds and hundreds of calls/emails/texts...quite overwhelming. I can't recall the last time a talking point ran for this long!”

Mia Costello
BBC Radio Solent

Why not add your family words? Just Go to Kitchen Table Lingo!

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Welcome to the English Project which aims to create, for the first time in the English-speaking world, an innovatory ‘language exposition’ (or 'living museum') where visitors - both physically and virtually – will be able to explore the English language in all its vigorous complexity across time and geography.

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So everyone is welcome, wherever they come from geographically or socially.

We will include all forms of English to reflect the amazing variety and power and adaptability of the language – from the street and workplace to science and advertising. There will be a core exhibition tracking the broad development of the language over the past 1500 years across the globe but it will be supplemented constantly by temporary exhibitions focused on special aspects and applications of English in, for example, pop music and science, law and love.

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