Ameliorated words of offensive origin

[TERRY IRONS]

On Tue, 27 Feb 2001, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:

> >Protestant.  Being newly Catholic, I find the word
> >neutral.  But some of my long-time Catholic friends say
> >they fear it's offensive to Protestants????
>
> Interesting. As an Episcopalian, what I find mildly offensive is "Catholic"
> for "Roman Catholic." Sometimes I shorten it to "Roman." I never shorten it to
> "Catholic" (better "catholic") which has a whole other meaning, as we say. I
> think that the word "Protestant" is generically neutral (though often
> misused).
>

Didn't the term "christian" also start out as a negative term, an
insult?

Virtually, Terry
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Terry Lynn Irons        t.irons at morehead-st.edu
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