Ameliorated words

[sagehen]

"Pissed" as either /drunk/ or /angry/   and   "pissed off" seem to me to
have become pretty inoffensive.
"Bumf " while a wholly made-up word, like "snafu," must have had more
offensive force at first than it has  today.  Acc. Paul Fussell, as I
recall, it originally meant bum fodder.


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

There's the disameliorative effect of euphemisms: where the originally
inoffensive takes on the taint of whatever it's subbing for.  I suppose
"toilet"  would be the outstanding example of this.

A. Murie