"pejorism" meaning in English

See pejorism in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈpiː.d͡ʒə.ɹɪ.zəm/, /ˈpɛ.d͡ʒə.ɹɪ.zəm/
Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} pejorism (uncountable)
  1. The belief that the world is becoming worse. Tags: uncountable Related terms: pejorative
    Sense id: en-pejorism-en-noun-o7vQGpj7 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "pejorism (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "2018 D Van Hulle: Negative Modernism: Beckett’s Poetics of Pejorism and Literary Enactment. Oxford University Research Archive https://ora.ox.ac.uk\nThis search for the worst and worse is part of Beckett’s poetics of \"pejorism\". . . characterized by acts of linguistic pejoration, by a \"fidelity to failure\", a sustained effort to question the efficacy of language and challenge the certainty of meaning, the asymptotic attempt at writing ‘worser’ and never reaching the ‘worst worst’. There are at least two aspects to this poetics of pejorism: the quest for the worst, and the awareness of the impossibility to say \"this is the worst\".\nThe quest for the worst is a journey toward \"pessimum\". The term ‘pessimism’was coined by Jesuit reviewers of Candide. . . But whereas ‘pessimism’ is a static concept. . . Beckett was inspired to conceive of a more dynamic negative modernism. . . , the philosophy holding that, by interfering in natural processes, human beings can bring about progress, that is improvements over the natural state of things. Beckett wrote the neologism \"Pejorismus\". . . which would be the opposite, holding that humanity is nothing to be boasting about since human interference can bring about serious regress vis-à-vis the natural processes. The hypothesis that our world might be the worst rather than the best of all possible worlds may lead to a static pessimism. Beckett’s \"pejorism\" is more dynamic, but it does not imply progress, nor necessarily regress."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The belief that the world is becoming worse."
      ],
      "id": "en-pejorism-en-noun-o7vQGpj7",
      "links": [
        [
          "belief",
          "belief"
        ],
        [
          "world",
          "world"
        ],
        [
          "worse",
          "worse"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "pejorative"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈpiː.d͡ʒə.ɹɪ.zəm/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈpɛ.d͡ʒə.ɹɪ.zəm/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pejorism"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "pejorism (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "pejorative"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "2018 D Van Hulle: Negative Modernism: Beckett’s Poetics of Pejorism and Literary Enactment. Oxford University Research Archive https://ora.ox.ac.uk\nThis search for the worst and worse is part of Beckett’s poetics of \"pejorism\". . . characterized by acts of linguistic pejoration, by a \"fidelity to failure\", a sustained effort to question the efficacy of language and challenge the certainty of meaning, the asymptotic attempt at writing ‘worser’ and never reaching the ‘worst worst’. There are at least two aspects to this poetics of pejorism: the quest for the worst, and the awareness of the impossibility to say \"this is the worst\".\nThe quest for the worst is a journey toward \"pessimum\". The term ‘pessimism’was coined by Jesuit reviewers of Candide. . . But whereas ‘pessimism’ is a static concept. . . Beckett was inspired to conceive of a more dynamic negative modernism. . . , the philosophy holding that, by interfering in natural processes, human beings can bring about progress, that is improvements over the natural state of things. Beckett wrote the neologism \"Pejorismus\". . . which would be the opposite, holding that humanity is nothing to be boasting about since human interference can bring about serious regress vis-à-vis the natural processes. The hypothesis that our world might be the worst rather than the best of all possible worlds may lead to a static pessimism. Beckett’s \"pejorism\" is more dynamic, but it does not imply progress, nor necessarily regress."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The belief that the world is becoming worse."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "belief",
          "belief"
        ],
        [
          "world",
          "world"
        ],
        [
          "worse",
          "worse"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈpiː.d͡ʒə.ɹɪ.zəm/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈpɛ.d͡ʒə.ɹɪ.zəm/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pejorism"
}

Download raw JSONL data for pejorism meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (74c5344 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.