Cool beans! I remember the Far Side cartoon well, but had no idea it had actually become the scientific name for the spikes on a Stegosaurus’ tail.
Until now, that is. Thanks for sharing!
Reference? I googled it but could not find out where the name came from or whether it was originally derogatory or derisory.
What about Shakers?
Post 5
As I recall reading it, the “geek” was the lowest of the low, the slime at the bottom of the barrel, the very nadir in the social hierarchy in the carny culture. He was the guy who would do any disgusting thing to entertain the masses. He was the guy who swallowed live goldfish and frogs.
I grew up in the U.S. (In Arkansas, actually, so it’s not like I had a huge sample size!) but my mother is Scottish, and she and my grandmother both say Quaker. I’also briefly attended a Quaker meetinghouse in Washington, D.C., and I’ve met people from various parts of the U.S. who identify as Quaker, though that might be partly for convenience, since the term Friend isn’t widely known among most people.
Which is ridiculous, since negro is literally the word black in other languages.
There’s a difference between a word’s origin and its meaning (denotative or connotative). “Nigger” is just a corruption of “negro,” which as you point out simply means “black,” yet it’s a terribly offensive word.
To me, “negro” is very old-fashioned. I suppose some people could take it as offensive because it seems like an attempt to roll back the clock (or calendar).
I think these may fit:
Cop
Canuck
mmm
Beatnik
Hippie
“Nerd” fits as well, then. As probably does “queer.” All three of these are still sometimes used derogatorily, but they have been reclaimed.
And because it sounds a lot like the other word. If it were still used, this wouldn’t be a problem. But, since it isn’t, it usually comes as getting as close as you can without actually saying “nigger.”
(I say usually because it could be great-grandma who is using old words because she doesn’t get it.)
Sure we do. 
Ko,
Quaker, born and raised
Well, crap. That was one I just ‘knew’ so well I didn’t even have to check. Guess I’m wrong, though.
How about paddy wagon?
Mob, for the great mass of people or that subsection thereof that runs about in full democracy mode.
Originally an insult by disdainful aristocrats or political thinkers, from latin: mobile vulgus, now just describes ordinary people in a group.
Whig
Tory
both of them originally insults coined by their opponents
Baroque
Hoyle denied that it was meant to be derogatory, but he wasn’t a fan of the theory othewise.
Anasazi is also “ancestors of our enemies” in Navajo. The preferred term is “Ancestral Puebloans” but they’re not around to complain. Navajo isn’t even the preferred name for themselves, and is sometimes considered derogatory, but it looks like that might be false etymology?
Tuareg is also, according to some sources, derogatory. They normally use variations on Kel Tamasheq or Imushagh.
It’s not the official name like Methodist is though, is it? Maybe more akin to Mormon. Their official name is Latter-Day Saints, but many people would be 
if you said you were a Friend or LDS, so the other term is commonly used.
The classic “geek show” was a guy biting the heads off live chickens.
The official name is Society of Friends. Where I grew up (Philadelphia area) Quaker Meeting and Friend’s Meeting are used interchangeably, but when talking about themselves, most people I know call themselves Quakers.
Like I said, the only Friends I know live in East Anglia, maybe it’s different for them.
I was under the impression (from reading a lot about native Americans when I was a little kid) that most “tribe” names as we know them means “enemy”, “snakes”, “weird looking people” and so forth, because usually their neighbors got to name them for the whites. But I may be wrong.
There are so many exonyms for various peoples that are derogatory in origin that there is little point trying to list them all.