Other forms: connotations
A connotation is the feeling a word carries beyond its plain sense. Negative connotations, the connotations of the word, carries a connotation.
It is the reason near-synonyms are not interchangeable: thrifty and stingy denote the same behaviour and connote opposite judgements. Denotation is the plain meaning and connotation everything the word drags along with it.
1nounconnotationThe feeling a word carries beyond its plain sense.
“The word "cheap" has a negative connotation, so the shop says "affordable" instead.”
connotation is a meaning.
Medieval Latin connotatio means a marking in addition, from con- plus notare, to note.
Latin
con- — together, with
Medieval Latin
connotātiō
English, today
connotation
Built from
Borrowed from Medieval Latin connotātiō, from connotō (“to mark in addition”), from Latin con- (“together, with”) + notō (“to note”); equivalent to connote + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA