Ameliorated words of offensive origin

[Dennis R. Preston]

>My recommendation would be the "putz" of "putzing around" (since the
>noun "putz" [e.g., "you putz"] could be mildly offensive).

dInIs

>  > 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'.
>
>I should add that I am more interested in words that are totally
>innocuous (like "jazz" would be if it truly fell into this
>category), rather than words like "scumbag" or "schmuck" that are
>in fact disparaging terms, but which may be less bad than their
>origins. Examples of the now-innocuous sort would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>Jesse Sheidlower

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736