Ameliorated words of offensive origin

[Jesse Sheidlower]

I'm working on a short and pressingly-deadlined essay and need to
come up with examples of words that are viewed as innocuous today
(or at least not _that_ bad) but whose origins are offensive in some
way. One example might be "scumbag," which is generally thought to
be less offensive by people who don't realize it's a word for a
condom; another might be "schmuck," which is perhaps less offensive
if you don't know it's Yiddish for 'penis'.

Some of the examples that were pitched to me are either of
uncertain etymology ("jazz," perhaps of sexual origin though perhaps
not; "suck," which some (Hi Ron!) think is not of sexual origin),
or are definitely not of offensive origin but are sometimes thought
to be ("squaw," not actually from an Algonquian word for 'female
genitals'). These might themselves be interesting but are not the
main point.

I might also be interested in words of _non_-offensive origin that
are now sometimes regarded as offensive, e.g. "niggardly".

Thanks for any ideas.

Jesse Sheidlower