Editing Dysphemism (section)

=== Reclamation of dysphemisms ===

"[[Nigger]]" would typically be dysphemistic; however, if used between African Americans it may be seen as neutral (although extremely casual) by the listener, depending on their social distance from the speaker and perceived status relative to the other party;<ref name="E & D" /> see "[[nigga]]".

[[Reappropriation|Reclamations]] of dysphemistic terms have been both successful and unsuccessful. The term "[[chicano]]" was a derogatory term and has been successfully reclaimed. Some terms like "[[Yankee]]" (for an American) or "punk" (for a late 1970s rocker), began as derogatory but were not considered such and adopted proudly by the named group. There have also been movements to reclaim words for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and otherwise non-heterosexual people, such as "queer", "fag" and "dyke".<ref name="Rawson 1989" />

Other historic examples of dysphemism reclamation include the term [[Impressionism]], which originated as a critical remark that "[[Monet]]'s ''[[Impression, Sunrise]]'' was not art, it was an impression", but was adopted to be the formal name of the style and was accepted by the artists themselves.