I've noticed that during regular conversation we all seem to casually use words and phrases that used to be offensive but are not anymore. And I've noticed that the opposite has happened with the term Jap, which only became offensive after the war.
A few that come to mind:
Paddy Wagon: Wagons were needed by police departments to haul people to jail beginning with the mass exodus of Irish to America.
Welsh: Someone who re-nigs, or more specifically doesn't pay lost bets.
Hooligan: The earliest use of the word "hooligan" dates back to British newspaper and police reports in the summer of 1898. They seem to have adapted the word from the Houlihan family, a group of Irish immigrants living in London. The family became known for their hilarious drinking songs, jigs and their enthusiastic police brutality that tended to ensue (to a word, "Irish-ness").
Vandals: A horde of dirty godless Germans.
Bugger: A sodomite from Bulgaria
Cannibal: Anyone from the west Indies.
Gyp: Someone who steals, short for gypsy.
I'm sure there are more. Anyone feel like sharing?
I left out Limey for Zack.
