Ameliorated words of offensive origin

[Lynne Murphy]

May I ask where this essay will be published?

Lynne

--On Tuesday, February 27, 2001 4:13 pm -0500 Jesse Sheidlower
<jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:

> 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



M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320