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