Reappropriation

As Geusenwörter ( from Dutch: geuzennaam ) or defiance words in linguistics refers to words that were originally intended to insult a group of people, be converted positively of this but (see also the concept of stigma management of Erving Goffman and the examples Ortsneckname, The Seven Swabians ).

Beggars, geuzen Dutch, the name given by the Dutch freedom fighters during the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) after the French word gueux itself is for beggars gave with which they were referred to the part of the Spanish nobility condescending.

Examples of such self-designation as a positive re-interpreted swear words, expressions like Çapulcu, Christian, nerd, pirate, Quakers, or Queer Yankee.

The term gay, also a first adapted from those affected insult, is now used in many areas already without pejorative connotation, but among other things, in the language of young people still have a pejorative meaning, which has been peeled from the original meaning.