Approbative

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In linguistics, approbatives are words or grammatical forms that denote a positive affect; that is, they express the appreciation or approval of the speaker.^[1][2] !Claro! (Spanish) and "Gotcha!" (English) are examples.

Sometimes a term may begin as a pejorative word and eventually be adopted in an approbative sense. In historical linguistics, this phenomenon is known as amelioration. Examples from English include "punk", "nerd", "badass", "sick", and "killer".^[3]

Look up approbative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Laudative, or praising affect
• Pejorative, or negative affect

1. ^ "Definition of APPROBATIVE". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
2. ^ "Approbative vs Approbatory: Meaning And Differences". 2023-07-19. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
3. ^ Tiwari, Matangi (2025-01-28). "How do bad words turn good?". Retrieved 2025-08-05.

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