Question: I came across the term 'everyday people' in an unpublished essay. It strikes me as derogatory just because it is referring to people rather than to things and makes them appear common. But then there is 'common people' or 'commoners' to contend with, so I'm not very sure.

It was used like this:

> 
> Everyday people trooped to the theatre to see the show.
> 
> 
> 

Okay, so here is the exact sentence in its original context (it's from a short book review):

> 
> The book is brimming with stories of everyday people who in spite of
> the curves life threw at them were able to come up strong and better.
> 
> 
> 

What is the authoritative word on this?

Answer: 
I guess context is the only thing that can really give the answer. *Everyday people* can also be used as an opposite of *pretentious people* or *snobs*, in which case it is anything but derogatory I would say.

If you really want to avoid 'everyday', you could replace it by expressions like, *Normally/in normal circumstances people...*. Of course, I say this trying to guess the context, so do forgive me if it is not relevant to your particular sentence.
A word will be derogatory if either the speaker (or writer) uses the word with the intent of being derogatory, or the hearer (or reader) interprets it in a way they see as derogatory. If a person sees him or herself as being above others in value or quality they would use “everyday people” as a derogatory phrase.

One issue we run into is that society is often that which determines whether or not a word is derogatory. At one point in time, the “n-word” was used, at times, without any derogatory intent (some certainly used it in a demeaning way, but not all). Over time though, that word became pretty well accepted as an inappropriate, derogatory word – even if it was spoken with no demeaning intent.

As society moves toward ‘politically correct’ labels, I can see where the same will hold true for “everyday people”. Over time, I can see where people will say, “whether you intended it or not, that’s derogatory – no one is more or less common (or everyday) than anyone else.”