T Gunn

From my understanding being called a POME stands for Prisoner Of Mother England. Surely this refers to the original settlers i.e. convicts. Therefore I am not a POME as I have no relation to early settlers but am travelling to Aus on a Spousal Visa! Therefore the POME's are Ozzies who descend from convict early settlers!

Does that make sense? Please someone correct me.

Should the English be offended by being called a POME? I know it’s just a bit of fun but curious!


Cheers

Tommy (off to Melbourne on 16th Oct 2002)

Devlin

Who knows if it's correct or not, but that is what Aussies call the English. It seems to bother a lot of English, but it is just taking the piss which is a very Australian thing to do - especially if you are different to them.

UDS

The origin of "pom" or "pommy" is not known, but it is almost certainly not an acronym of "Prisoner Of Mother England" (or of "Prisoner Of Her Majesty", another version that people sometimes claim is right). There are no reliable acronyms which predate the mid-20th century, but "pom" is much older than that. Besides, "pom" always meant a free immigrant from Britain; there is no evidence that it was ever used with reference to convicts or to native-born Australians descended from either convicts or free settlers.

The best guess is that it is an abbreviation of "pomegranate", which was a rhyming slang for immigrant. So "pom" with reference to a newly-arrived immigrant from England is correct.

As I understand, "pom" only refers to British people. A migrant from Asia or southern Europe is not called a pom. Is that correct?

vavavoom

As far as I know that's true. Asians, as well as Southern Europeans (Greeks, Italians, Serbs etc) are called 'WOGS' thought to come from 'Westernized Oriental Gentleman' or similar.

Jez

Personally I couldn't care less being called a POM or not. I have never had
any problems in Australia being English either.
Jez

"T Gunn" wrote in message
news:440496.1034349737@britishexpats-
.com...
    > From my understanding being called a POME stands for Prisoner Of Mother
    > England. Surely this refers to the original settlers i.e. convicts.
    > Therefore I am not a POME as I have no relation to early settlers but am
    > travelling to Aus on a Spousal Visa! Therefore the POME's are Ozzies who
    > descend from convict early settlers!
    > Does that make sense? Please someone correct me.
    > Should the English be offended by being called a POME? I know it's just
    > a bit of fun but curious!
    > Cheers
    > Tommy (off to Melbourne on 16th Oct 2002)
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Robert Edwards

Look upon it as being a term of endearment, you could be called a lot worse

"Devlin" wrote in message
news:440512.1034351385@britishexpats-
.com...
    > Originally posted by T Gunn:
    > > From my understanding being called a POME stands for Prisoner Of
    > > Mother England. Surely this refers to the original settlers i.e.
    > > convicts. Therefore I am not a POME as I have no relation to early
    > > settlers but am travelling to Aus on a Spousal Visa! Therefore the
    > > POME's are Ozzies who descend from convict early settlers!
    > >
    > > Does that make sense? Please someone correct me.
    > >
    > > Should the English be offended by being called a POME? I know it's
    > > just a bit of fun but curious!
    > >
    > >
    > > Cheers
    > >
    > > Tommy (off to Melbourne on 16th Oct 2002)
    > Who knows if it's correct or not, but that is what Aussies call the
    > English. It seems to bother a lot of English, but it is just taking the
    > piss which is a very Australian thing to do - especially if you are
    > different to them.
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Ceri

"Wogs" in Britain are blacks , African.
Italians are called wops.

I found it funny when I first came to Australia calling an italians wog... you've got it all wrong here!... as usual!

by the way they pronounce Tw*T in in australia as Twot... funny.

Ps
make sure you're wearing your thongs (flip flops)

renth

Aussies call the British POMS which really pisses of the Sctots, Welsh etc... "I'm not a Pom - I'm Scottish".

"Yes mate, whatever." is the usual reply

Anyway, some of the best Aussies are Jocks. Take the Young brothers from AC/DC.

Don't forget though, don't ever say "Abbo", It's "Black Fella".

Wog isn't as offensive as it is in the UK, i.e. "I've got the wog" (I'm sick). Having said that, I have Italian Australian friends who don't like the term therefore I'd never use it.

AUMike

Hi

Apparently the acronym 'POME' (Prisoner of Mother England) is a bit of a furphy and doesn't seem to be substantiated, but has been kept alive like an Urban Myth. 'POM' itself is an abbreviation of pomegranate', but how we get from to using the name of a fruit to describing an English person I have no idea.

According to someone else with a better vocabulary than I, 'pome' is from the old french word for pomegranate 'pome grenate', with pome pronounced as pom.

Can anybody else shed a bit more light?

Michael

Terry R Brooking

    > Look upon it as being a term of endearment, you could be called a lot
worse

and probably will!

--
Regards
-Terry

Paddy kopieczek

I under stand it means Prisoner of Milbank

See the following quote:

"It is the largest prison in London. Every male and female convict sentenced to transportation in Great Britain is sent to Millbank previous to the sentence being executed. Here they remain about three months under the close inspection of the three inspectors of the prison, at the end of which time the inspectors report to the Home Secretary, and recommend the place of transportation. The number of persons in Great Britain and Ireland condemned to transportation every year amounts to about 4000. So far the accommodation of the prison permits, the separate system is adopted. Admission to inspect - order from the Secretary for the Home Department, or the Inspector of Prisons. "

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850

r.bartlett

i have heard that pomegranete fruit posibility is related to the fruits being a very reddish pink colour..

which was a reference to the colour that the british convict quickly went in the australian sun..


cheers

richard

Thomas Voirol

Paddy kopieczek wrote in message news:...
    > I under stand it means Prisoner of Milbank

The one I heard was "Prisoner Of the Motherland", referring to the
fact that people being miserable in Britain sent off their convicts to
a beautiful, sunny place in the south. These in turn thought the ones
who stayed to be in more of a prisoner situation than they were.

Hope this makes sense
Tom

Wenz

Just to clear this up...The word 'POME' was written on the shirts of the
convicts landing at Botany Bay...and it stands for "Prisoner of Mother
England".
One other thing most of these so called convicts were in actual fact very
experienced trades people who were sent there not as you might think to get
them off England's soil but to help create a new bastion of England's empire
at the time.
Just a little bit of history while we're all sat about waiting for the
postman.
BTW...one of the crimes listed on record was for a carpenter who was sent
there for ' Stealing apples from an orchard'...twelve weeks later he was
building government buildings in Oz. Maybe that's what we should all do then
forget the Visa approach and let's all go scrumping for apples...see you all
on the boat! :-)
Wenz

"Thomas Voirol" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Paddy kopieczek wrote in message
news:...
    > >
    > > I under stand it means Prisoner of Milbank
    > The one I heard was "Prisoner Of the Motherland", referring to the
    > fact that people being miserable in Britain sent off their convicts to
    > a beautiful, sunny place in the south. These in turn thought the ones
    > who stayed to be in more of a prisoner situation than they were.
    > Hope this makes sense
    > Tom

Chris Ridley

This explanation seems reasonable.

http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-pom1.htm

Chris R



"Paddy kopieczek" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > I under stand it means Prisoner of Milbank
    > See the following quote:
    > "It is the largest prison in London. Every male and female convict
    > sentenced to transportation in Great Britain is sent to Millbank
    > previous to the sentence being executed. Here they remain about three
    > months under the close inspection of the three inspectors of the prison,
    > at the end of which time the inspectors report to the Home Secretary,
    > and recommend the place of transportation. The number of persons in
    > Great Britain and Ireland condemned to transportation every year amounts
    > to about 4000. So far the accommodation of the prison permits, the
    > separate system is adopted. Admission to inspect - order from the
    > Secretary for the Home Department, or the Inspector of Prisons. "
    > Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com