Maine Strips 'Squaw' From Place Names

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:51 PM -0400 4/4/00, Kathleen Miller wrote:
>I think this, or at least the changing of names for their "offensivness",
>was discussed before.
>
>A short piece in the Wash.Post. claims that the reason "squaw" is being
>removed from all place names in Maine (as it already has in Colorado,
>Minnesota and Montana) is because squaw roughly translates, "whore."
>
>According to Merriam-Webster and the OED (M-W online, OED on CD) it simply
>means woman.
>
>What gives? Anybody out there speak Massachuset?
>
>Katy

To get back to Katy's question, the relevant Straight Dope column is
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000317.html
and it's an especially persuasive and well-argued treatment, with informed
commentary by Ives Goddard and a nice analysis by Cecil of why "squaw" is
still insulting even though it didn't come from a word that meant "whore"
or "prostitute".

Larry