[johnboy]

My understanding was that a squaw was a female Indian. If terms generally and benignly used for Indians are in fact offensive in their correct definition, we should be educated about that.

same understanding here. but, lo, recently we learn that it means something else according to some hyper-technical/hyper-correct etymology (sp?).

the fascinating thing about this, to me, anyway, is that these same language purists have trouble with the word "niggardly," which somehow doesn't seem to rate the same super parsing.

[fire and forget]

I did quite a bit of checking and the best English translation of "squaw" is maiden. Perhaps some Indians crassly use the word to mean something else. These things happen. Hyper-purist, indeed.

The term niggardly, I believe, derives from old English long before the term "nigger" ever came about. "Nigger" might have been derived from that ancient term but I doubt it for several reasons. Too tired to elaborate.