Boo and Hooray Terms

Some words just signal BOO or HOORAY! Eighteenth century Philosopher Jeremy Bentham called them derogatory and eulogistic terms. They sum up an entire attitude and somehow make it impossible to disagree. In fact, boo words aren't euphemisms, they're dysphemisms. The complete list will shortly be published as a mini ebook.


belch Industrial processes you don't like always "belch" smoke, sparks, fumes, sulphur, steam etc.

clinical unsympathetic, unemotional Should mean what we do in clinics (doctors use it this way).

consumerism Chavs buying chavvy things.

controversial Overused, typically to show that the writer disapproves of something ("the government's controversial academy schools scheme"). Guardian stylebook

craven The UK does what the US wants.

didactic Some time in the 80s educationists decided that teachers shouldn't be didactic, ie teach. So they have to include exercises that the children can do in couples and groups.

dutiful Has overtones of conservative or even prissy and dull. 19th century women dutifully stitched samplers. On the elm-lined streets of Washington's Fourth Ward, where residents live in neat brick houses and dutifully tend their azaleas. NYT The active membership of the Church is largely made up of devout, personally conservative and conforming people who dutifully care for their families. Web People dutifully attend meetings and lectures when they could just “attend” them. Monks are particularly dutiful.

hawking Overselling things you don't want.

institution Marriage is an outmoded institution.

march, swathe The solution is to “march Muslim children into separate institutions where, swathed in Koranic teachings and constrictive dress…” Janice Turner Times Feb 14 09 You can tell she doesn’t like the idea of faith schools, can’t you? (Subtle pejoration is often conveyed through verbs of motion or location.)

mass market, mass media, mass culture Those ghastly chavs again.

materialism Chavs buying vulgar things especially flat-screen televisions – in the olden days it was colour televisions we disapproved of.

More euphemisms here.
And here. 

Adjectives

Abracadabrantesque

Advice on writing usually tells you to eliminate adjectives – yes, if the only adjectives you know are major, key and wonderful. You can say a lot with an adjective. You can nail a whole phenomenon. A lot of good ones are pejorative and also slangy – maybe because the polite people who make the rules about polite language are also making a good thing out of being vacuous, smug, stuck-up and slippery, or selling philosophies that are smarmy and chicken-soupy.

abrabracabrantesque antiseptic bitchy bonkers cloudy ghostly ghostlily grating mean medicinal misty myth-making over-bright overdone over-cooked over-blown over-explained over-friendly over-hyped over-inflated over-interpreted over-civilized over-stated needy nerdy neuralgic parochial pious peevish pointy posturing precious preening self-anointed self-applauding self-appointed self-centred self-congratulatory self-created self-deceiving self-defeating self-deluding self-dramatizing self-engrossed rubbishy salty sham shoddy silly sissy slow smug snarky snobbish sorry stealthy stuck-up sugary testy trashy touchy upscale wafty wet wimpy

More adjectives here and here and here and here.