(This probably should have been in Weekly Themes, but it's here now. ;-) )

Chinese cap still sounds like a euphemism for coolie hat to me, esp since what's being referred to is not a what I would call a cap - shouldn't a chinese _cap_ be one of those Chairman Mao caps ? Could cap be meant as a diminutive of hat? Is that even worse (cute little coolie hat)? Wouldn't conical colander or cone sieve be equally as clear?

I believe chinese wall originally referred to a belief that the Chinese like to divide larger spaces into rooms with screens which isn't exactly negative but still could be considered a stereotype - as if they were the only people in the world to ever use a room divider.

German shepherds and wiener schnitzel are so named because they actually originate from the places in the name and are called that in the places (Deutscher Schäferhund = German shepherd dog) so unless you think they're offending themselves it's a stretch to imagine them being offensive.

In Anu's A Word A Day on Chinese Auction, he said it wasn't offensive but... he only referred to the "nice" kind of Chinese auction (a complicated raffle), but I'm more familiar with the horrible Christmas party game called by the same name which almost always ends in tears in my experience though some people seem to love it.

Last edited by Myridon; 09/09/2008 2:57 PM.