from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Disparaging; belittling.
- noun A disparaging or belittling word or expression.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Tending or intended to depreciate or deteriorate, as the sense of a word; giving a low or bad sense to.
- noun In grammar, a word that depreciates or deteriorates the sense: thus, poetaster is a pejorative of poet, criticaster of critic.