Why Pommie?

[Dave]

I am sure alot of you have heard of the term "Pom" or "Pommie". It is what Austrailians call the British. I just wondered where this expression comes from. I have heard of a couple of therories:

1. British people who go to Austrailia suffer from the hea,t and develop a "Pommegranite" complexion.

2. Slightly strange this one. I heard maybe it comes from "Prisoners of His Majersty". If you take the initials of those letters, you have POHM = Pom.

Is there any people from Oz on here that can clear this one up ;D.

[geirr]

They don't really know where it comes from but I think that Prisoner of His Majesty is just a legend, the pommegranite theory seems more plausible.

[Graeme]

I concur with Geirr. Pommy is spelt as I spelt it. And it usually refers only to English people, not Scots or Irish or Welsh. It is actually "pommy bastard'. Bastard is not offensive in Australia.

[Dave]

what does bastard mean in Austrailia?

[Graeme]

Of course bastard can mean illegimate, but usually it is a way of saying wicked or cool or bad as in good. With English people it can be just an acknowledgement of their friendship and closeness without being gushing or sychophantic.

[Dave]

Cheers for cleaning that one up Graeme, you Aussie Bastard ;D!

[Graeme]

Actually I was born in Malta and I am technically a Pommy Wog bastard.

[Aria88]

My guess has always been something to do with "pomme de terre" -- potato. The Brits were quite interested in transporting and utilizing this cheap source of carbs (i.e. Ireland, etc.). Pomegranates seem too exotic for Limeys to use, and I'm suspicious of acronyms (e.g. "wop" does not = "without papers," a folk etymology. Wop = guapo).

[xxx]

I always thought it was POME (Prisoner Of the Mother Empire), and from there POMMIE.

And, by the way, strictly speaking in Spanish, bastards were only the illegitimate of royal lineage. It seems that only in modern times it has spread to mean any illegitimate.

Also, as a curious, the "pig" Latin phrase «Nil Illegitimus carborundum» (or, Illegitimus non carborundum»), which is used to mean "Don't let the bastards wear you down". Other than being of an awful construction and using a non existing word in Latin ("carborundum"), wouldn't have had any sense to Romans as they didn't consider bastard children as being anything wrong.

[Sandwich]

Interesting. And Fitz, the prefix attached to many aristocratic Norman names in England - Fitzwilliam, Fitzherbert, Fitzroy - means "bastard son of".


You lot have already exhasted all the derivations of Pommie given by Brewers Dictionary, so I'll just add that it's usually whingeing Pom, isn't it. Mustn't grumble.

[xxx]

Sandwich said:

Interesting. And Fitz, the prefix attached to many aristocratic Norman names in England - Fitzwilliam, Fitzherbert, Fitzroy - means "bastard son of".

In Spain the surname Expósito (as in Italy the surname Esposito) was given to the illegal children who were abandoned at the gates of convents and monasteries. According to the Royal Academy Dicctionary:

expósito, ta.

(Del lat. expositus, expuesto).
(from Latin expositus, exposed).

1. adj. Dicho de un recién nacido: Abandonado o expuesto, o confiado a un establecimiento benéfico. U. m. c. s.
1. adj. Said of a new born baby: Abandoned or exposed, or entrusted to a charity institution.


casa de expósitos.

1. f. inclusa.
1.f.foundling hospital.


inclusa.

inclusa1.

(De Nuestra Señora de la Inclusa, imagen de la Virgen traída en el siglo XVI de la isla L'Écluse, en Holanda, y colocada en la casa de expósitos de Madrid).
(from Our Lady of the Inclusa, an image of Mary which came in the 16th century from the island of L'Écluse, in The Netherlands, and placed in the foundling hospital of Madrid).

1. f. Casa en donde se recoge y cría a los niños expósitos.
House where foundling babies are taken in and raised up.