derogation
/dɛrəˈɡeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun
1An exemption from or relaxation of a rule or law: countries assuming a derogation from EC law...
- The applicant might obtain breathing spaces before it has to apply the EU rules, but permanent derogations or opt-outs are ruled out from the beginning.
- Intensive negotiations over the past year have failed to obtain any derogations which would allow the continuation of the 35 to 40 boat sea angling events in County Sligo, Mayo and Galway.
- ‘Both of these derogations were exceptional and were in response to the conditions which existed at the time’.
2 [mass noun] The perception or treatment of someone or something as being of little worth: the derogation of women...
- That is, low-power parents engaged in more verbal derogation of children than did high-power parents after being primed to think in terms of competition.
- Enthusiasm was a term of derogation among her contemporaries.
- He concludes with a gibe at his colleagues' casual derogation of the blogs.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'impairment of the force of'): from Latin derogatio(n-), from the verb derogare (see derogate).