# What does "degenerate" mean (used as an insult)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 16, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507 "2013-02-16T15:19:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507/1 "2013-02-16T15:19:25Z")

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Never understood the message being conveyed when someone accuses another of being a “degenerate”. Does that term have a specific meaning or situational use to you? (As best I can tell, it appears to mean that someone is acting like a freak off the Jerry Springer show.)

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507/2 "2013-02-16T15:33:20Z")

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It’s somebody whose sense of morality/ethics/character/whatever are sub-par. It’s somebody who has “degenerated” to a corrupt state of being.

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**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507/3 "2013-02-16T16:00:54Z")

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> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#):
>
> It’s somebody whose sense of morality/ethics/character/whatever are sub-par. It’s somebody who has “degenerated” to a corrupt state of being.

Right, but that could mean basically anything by definition. I was just wondering if that term tends to mean anything more specific when used in conversation.

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**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507/4 "2013-02-17T04:25:27Z")

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Among gamblers, a “degenerate gambler” is (or maybe was; the term may have fallen out of use) a compulsive one.

The term was also formerly used for homosexuals – that is likely what is meant if you ran into it in between-the-wars detective stories.

Both uses implied disparagement of someone who had fallen so far as to have no control of his impulses.

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**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507/5 "2013-02-17T04:30:23Z")

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Used interchangeably with “sicko”.

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507/6 "2013-02-20T02:09:55Z")

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I know what it means, of course. Up to the early 20th century the word “regeneration” was used to mean the opposite of degeneration in the moral sense, as in the silent film classic _[Regeneration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_%281915_film%29)_, but I never quite understood why the root _generate_ came to be a metaphor for character growth. Perhaps one’s good character was thought to be like an appendage that you might be able to grow back, if you’d lost it.

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**Author:** ![Nikki9doors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c77e96/32.png) [@Nikki9doors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nikki9doors)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-degenerate-mean-used-as-an-insult/650507/7 "2013-02-20T02:58:15Z")

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Degenerate means as a noun:

1. A depraved, corrupt or vicious person. And,
2. A person lacking or having progressively lost normative biological or phychological characteristics.