It does mean white/of European origin in American English. Just like entree means main dish. Both don’t correspond to the original meaning of the words.
You can find similar shifts in meaning in other languages too (e.g., German calls a mobile/cell phone “Handy” which makes no sense to a native English speaker).
I question the wisdom of telling native speakers that their language uses a word wrong/that doesn’t mean what “they assume it means”. Stuff in AE (and other language) means exactly what AE speakers (and speakers of other languages) assume it means.
Cau·ca·sian
/kôˈkāZHən/
NORTH AMERICAN
white-skinned; of European origin.
‘Handy’ comes from the WWII ‘handie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to hold in the hand¹, which followed the ‘walkie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to walk around with².
Meanwhile, at least in the modern US, "walkie talkie" is the name of the handheld unit and "handie talkie" would get weird looks because it's not really known.
I find that highly doubtful, since around 50 years passed between WWII and the advent of mobile phones. I heard that "handy" was some early model by Motorola.
This article appears to be fairly thinly sourced. The one named source I can find appears to be a blog post by a fellow software developer who is an instrumented-rated pilot, however has flown airliners in simulation only. The article does not claim the source is a professional pilot or that they have ever flown the 737Max.
With due respect, I am not sure whether that counts as enough expertise to qualify someone’s opinion as news worthy?
This appears to be a thinly sourced article, based on a blog post opinion by someone who is a software developer and instrumented-rated (hobby?) pilot who has flown airliners in simulation only.
With due respect, not sure whether that constitutes enough expertise to to qualify and opinion as news-worthy?
I question the wisdom of telling native speakers that their language uses a word wrong/that doesn’t mean what “they assume it means”. Stuff in AE (and other language) means exactly what AE speakers (and speakers of other languages) assume it means.
Cau·ca·sian /kôˈkāZHən/ NORTH AMERICAN white-skinned; of European origin.