- Today's Word
Impinge
im-PINJ
Definition
- (verb) To intrude upon or negatively affect something or someone, often by limiting or interfering.
Example
The new law may impinge on individual freedoms if not carefully revised.
Fun Fact
From the Latin impingere (“to strike or press upon”), “impinge” originally had a physical meaning—like waves impinging on a cliff. Over time, it took on a more figurative meaning, referring to violations of boundaries—legal, personal, or ethical. Whether it’s noise impinging on concentration or rules impinging on freedom, the word always suggests an unwanted intrusion.
(noun/adjective) A word or expression that implies disapproval or conveys a negative or degrading attitude.
The critic’s review was laced with pejoratives — words that seemed neutral on the surface but carried a sting that every reader in the industry immediately recognized.
Pejorative derives from the Late Latin pejorare, meaning “to make worse,” rooted in pejor — “worse” — the comparative form of malus, meaning “bad.” The same root gives us impair, which also carries the sense of something being made worse or diminished. It entered English in the 19th century, used primarily by linguists to describe the process by which words acquire negative connotations over time — a phenomenon so common in language that linguists gave it its own term: pejoration.