From Latin 'derogare' (to partially repeal) — diminishing someone's standing, transferred from legal repeal to personal insult.
Showing a critical or disrespectful attitude; tending to diminish the value or standing of someone or something.
From Late Latin dērogātōrius (diminishing, detracting, repealing in part), from Latin dērogāre (to repeal partially, to diminish, to detract from, to ask away), composed of dē- (down from, away from, removing) + rogāre (to ask, to propose a law, to request). The PIE root underlying rogāre is *roǵ- or *h₃reǵ- (to move in a straight line, to direct). In Roman legal language, dērogāre had a precise technical meaning: to partially repeal a law, to take away part
In Roman law, 'dērogātiō' was strictly distinguished from 'abrogātiō.' 'Abrogātiō' repealed a law entirely; 'dērogātiō' only chipped away at part of it. The modern English 'derogatory' preserves this sense of partial diminishment — derogatory remarks do not destroy someone's reputation outright, but they chip away at it, reducing it piece by piece.
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