An example from the English Wikipedia were common
usage is overruled by
offensiveness: 'Eskimo' is a very common name for a people who live in the
North American Arctic. In fact it is probably the most common name for them (at
least in the U.S.). But they consider it to be highly offensive. Therefore our
article about them is at [[Inuit]] (a widely used alternate name - esp in
Canada).
Unfortunately for this example, not all Eskimo are Inuit, and by and
large anthropologists still stick with the more accurate definition,
regardless of social stigma. (Thankfully, Nelson Mandella hasn't been
re-styled an "African-American" on en yet. I'm waiting for the day...)
-- mav
--
Austin D. Hair <austin(a)austinhair.org>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Callidus
http://www.austinhair.org/