One Step Now Education

March 20, 2026

self-deprecating

Do you have a self-deprecating form of humor?

I heard this word on a podcast the other day and wondered about the base of the word and a possible relationship to the word precious. I also think it's a good opportunity to talk about hyphens in spelling.

As you read through this investigation, you'll encounter information about participles, both past and present. You'll find out how to handle Latin deponent verbs when you encounter them. We'll take a look at the three types of compound words. Finally, we will look more at the phonology of the prefix before wrapping up.

Meaning

What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?

When we say someone has a self-deprecating sense of humor, it means that person is often making jokes at their own expense. I think of comedians like Conan O'Brien or Rodney Dangerfield.

"I just realized that my life can't fall apart if I never had it together in the first place."

When we look up self-deprecating in the Collins dictionary, the entry states "they criticize themselves or represent themselves in a foolish or light-hearted way."

This word functions as an adjective, even though it has a verbal form. The verb deprecate, "criticize," can take the <-ing> suffix to form deprecating. This verbal form is known as a participle. A participle can be a past participle or a present participle. The past participle often ends in <-ed>, mirroring the past tense of most verbs. The present participle will end in <-ing>. Both types of participles may function adjectivally, meaning they will modify nouns:

• His self-deprecating jokes about his cooking help lighten the mood at family dinner.
• She has a self-deprecating way of introducing herself to people.
• Throughout the memoir, the author's self-deprecating tone became tiresome.

In these sentences, self-deprecating modifies the nouns jokes, way, and tone.

Structure

What are the elements that make up this word's structure?

There are numerous words that begin with self followed by a hyphen in the dictionary, including self-awareness, self-control, and self-defense. We know that self is most likely its own element.

self + deprecate/ + ing

Could the deprecate be analyzed further? We've seen a suffix <-ate> on many verbs like vacate or complicate.

self + deprec + ate/ + ing

The slash mark indicates the

Could the

self + de + prec + ate/ + ing

And this is where I started to wonder about a relationship to precious. Let's take a look at an etymological dictionary, like Etymonline, to find evidence for our hypothesis:

I went straight to the entry for deprecate, as I'm confident of the <-ing> suffix and the deprecate came to us in the 1620s. I see that it is from de + precari. The second element there is a Latin verb with a sense of "pray."

To find the English base that comes from a Latin verb, you must consider the second and fourth principal parts. The second principal part is also known as the Latin infinitive. The Latin infinitive will often end in <-are>, <-ere>, or <-ire>. This verb does not end in any of these, so what is going on?

I turn to LatDict, an online Latin dictionary, to resolve the issue. At the entry for precari, I see three forms of this verb: precor, precari, precatus. I also see that it says voice: deponent. This verb is a Latin deponent verb. For our purposes, it is good to know that Latin deponent verbs have three parts instead of four. We often recognize them because the nominative form (the first part) ends in <-or>. Similar to removing the <-are> from a traditional Latin verb, I can remove the <-ari> from a Latin deponent verb to arrive at my English base:

self + de + prec + ate/ + ing

Here, the prefix

Let's talk briefly about the first element here, Compound words come in three types: closed, open, and hyphenated. The closed form is the type we are most familiar with: mailbox, nighttime, headstrong. The open type can be troublesome. The word ice cream is my go-to word for teaching about open compounds. You could also use washing machine. Both of these compounds have a different meaning than each of the separate words. We can also think of high school and living room in the same way. Over time, some previously open compounds become closed compounds, like bookstore.

The hyphenated compound looks like two separate words joined by a hyphen. These include terms like well-known, deep-fried, merry-go-round, or mother-in-law. Some previously hyphenated compounds also develop into closed compounds. My favorite example to show students (and if you're my age you'll remember) is that e-mail has now become email.

Relatives

What are the word's relatives and history?

So is our word related to precious? For that to be true, the entry for precious would have to show us that it too comes from the root precari, "pray." However, when I go to the entry, I see instead that the base of this word has a root in Latin pretium, "value; worth; price."

I do, however, see a relative in precarious. When something is precarious, you might pray about it, so that makes sense to me. We also see derivational forms of deprecate in deprecative and deprecatory. There is also a word, imprecate, meaning "curse," which is new to me.

If we go back to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root, we can see relationships to pray and prayer. These words traveled through the French countryside before crossing the channel to land on English shores. We also see relationship to postulate, which originally meant to "ask urgently" but then became a church official. Interestingly, there is also a relationship to the old-fashioned term prithee, a term I remember from reading The Crucible in high school. Apparently, it's a contracted form of "I pray thee."

Graphemes

What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?

The prefix delimiting, we may pronounce it as /i:/. In the word definition, we may pronounce it as /ɛ/, and in the word delicious, we may pronounce it as /ə/, or schwa. This is why we spell out the prefix and place it in angle brackets. If my student learns this as the prefix /di:/, then it may be unrecognizable to them when it shows in definition or delicious or even deprecate, where it is pronounced /ɛ/.

The

Next Steps

What concepts from this investigation can we explore next to learn more about the English orthographic system?

The last thing I thought I'd find is a reference to "praying away" a part of ourselves. I was fully expecting to find a connection to not being precious, which just goes to show you: Looks can be deceiving. At least now when we joke at our own expense, we can do so etymologically.

Stay curious,

Brad

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PS. The decision about using a hyphen or not often depends upon the style manual you are using. Some style guides may have you hyphenate non-native or co-owner to have you avoid two letters in a row.

P.P.S. Along with an interactive lesson on how to find English bases from Latin verbs, there's also a resource about deponent verbs located inside the Creating English Orthographers (CEO) community, my online subscription-based community created to be a safe ad-free place where scientific word study practitioners can share resources and talk shop. Join us at the link under my signature.