In this talk, I will put forward and systematically develop a sociolinguistic account of slurs. On the view on offer, what distinguishes slurs from their neutral counterparts is not some kind of derogatory content, but a set of sociolinguistic properties, including the fact that slurs are used primarily by speakers who voice negative attitudes towards and engage in discriminatory (and possibly violent) practices against the target group and its members. I will argue that such a sociolinguistic account of slurs offers a complete account of the main practical properties of slurs, i.e., offending and creating/reinforcing negative attitudes towards the target group, while avoiding the problems of its main competitors. In addition, the proposed explanation will be more economical than the main alternatives on the market, since it does not ascribe any kind of derogatory content to either slurs or their uses. I will then extend the sociolinguistic account to non-slurring pejoratives. In this way, the proposed explanation promises not only a better understanding of slurs, but of pejorative language in general, opening up new ways of investigating evaluative and thus non-neutral terms.