[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by troutman

As I understood it "eskimo" may have been coined to mean "raw meat eater".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo

In Canada and Greenland, the term Eskimo has fallen out of favour, as it is considered pejorative by the natives and has been replaced by the term Inuit.

Two principal competing etymologies have been proposed for the name "Eskimo", both from the Innu-aimun (Montagnais) language. The most commonly accepted today appears to be the proposal of Ives Goddard at the Smithsonian Institution, who derives it from the Montagnais word meaning "snowshoe-netter".[5] The word assime·w means "she laces a snowshoe" in Montagnais. Montagnais speakers refer to the neighbouring Mi'kmaq people using words that sound very much like eskimo.[6][7]

Jose Mailhot, a Quebec anthropologist who speaks Montagnais, however, published a paper in 1978 which suggested that the meaning is "people who speak a different language".[8][9]

The primary reason that Eskimo is considered derogatory is the arguable, but widespread perception[5][8][9][10] that in Algonkian languages it means "eaters of raw meat."[11][12] One Cree speaker suggested the original word that became corrupted to Eskimo might indeed have been askamiciw (which means "he eats it raw"), and the Inuit are referred to in some Cree texts as askipiw (which means "eats something raw.")[13] The majority of academic linguists do not agree. Nevertheless, it is commonly felt in Canada and Greenland that the term Eskimo is pejorative.[1][14][15][16][17]

Considering the Cree and the Inuit were enemies, the Inuit wouldn't be too enamored with having to be named by the Cree.