Pom ? Pommie ? Pommy ? Australian ? English ?

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xpd

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#143413 14-Apr-2014 14:07

From another thread......

SteveON:
kapitikarl: (although I am a Pomm)

FYI -It's Prisoner of Mother England. Are you from Australia?

Wouldnt that make Australians "poms" and not the English ? My father was never a convict, never lived in AU and is from Liverpool, but referred to as a "pom".

Even the English dont know.......

http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-59927,00.html

XPD / Gavin

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blakamin

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#1024915 14-Apr-2014 14:24

It's been said that the "Prisoner of Mother England" bit was made up to fit the word... So no, not Australians at all.

Wikipedia:

Another explanation – now generally considered to be a false etymology – was that "pom" or "pommy" were derived from an acronym such as POM ("Prisoner of Millbank"), POME ("Prisoner of Mother England") or POHMS ("Prisoner Of Her Majesty's Service").[16] However, there is no evidence that such terms, or their acronyms, were used in Australia when "pom" and "pommy" entered use there. Another folk etymology suggests that the term was derived from the word "pompous"

Fred99

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#1024922 14-Apr-2014 14:34

I think we've turned into a nation of poms - in fact more pommy than the poms. Surveys indicating 70% (or more?) in favour of maintaining our curious status as a constitutional monarchy, all the hysteria about what the royals are doing and wearing on their taxpayer (UK and NZ) subsidised luxury holiday, and we don't want to change our flag apparently, at least partly because of a union jack in the corner.

Geektastic

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#1025021 14-Apr-2014 17:19

I've also seen it said that it stems from French = 'pomme' (apple).

It's insulting, whatever it is.

blakamin

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#1025025 14-Apr-2014 17:25

Geektastic:

It's insulting, whatever it is.

No more insulting than "pakeha".

PhantomNVD

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#1025038 14-Apr-2014 17:52

Yep, always wondered why English kiwis refer to themselves by the (derogative?) Mauri term for them??

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#1025055 14-Apr-2014 18:09

I'm a first-generation Australian.
Both of my parents were English.
I have lived in NZ for 30 years.
I have English and Australian passports.
So I'm a Pommy-Aussie-Pakeha mongrel - and proud of it

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Fred99

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#1025058 14-Apr-2014 18:19

PhantomNVD: Yep, always wondered why English kiwis refer to themselves by the (derogative?) Mauri term for them??

It's not a derogatory term - nor AFAIK is it compulsory to refer to yourself as "pakeha" anywhere, with the possible exception of on a marae, where you're a guest (and usually a very welcome guest).

SteveON

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#1025087 14-Apr-2014 20:01

This thread = ha!

Pakeha is not a derogatory word. Do some research please.

blakamin

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#1025129 14-Apr-2014 20:51

I don't think "Pom" is derogatory either... that was the point I was making at geektastic.