Why do Australians call us poms?

Show all answers

Power Flower

The first guy's right. It's an abbreviation for Prisoner of Her Majesty from the old convict days. We don't use it in a derogatory sense.... it's an affectionate name. You shouldn't take it as us being rude. Same as calling the New Zealanders kiwis.

Bardy

Poms is not an insult. The yanks call them "limeys" and we call the Americans "yanks" or "septics". I am an ex pom and now an Aussie, I found if they accept you then they use these names. To Aussies I will always be a "pom", even though I have been here 40 years. It is part of our heritage.

jennifer h

No need to be sensitive about the name Pom . It has been around for 100 years. No one means anything mean by it. People call us Aussies and new Zealanders Kiwis . I've lived in England they call parkistanis pakies . Most of the prisoners that where sent here had a difficult time at the start but then went on and had a great lifestyle and did very well for themselves. Thousands of British live here and are not offended . We are part of the British commonwealth not everyone agrees with that. I do though as there can never be a dictator with having the Queen although her role here is very minimal .

Mel

Mate, it's not being rude or mean. It's not at all meant to be offensive, it's just slang, like we call Americans 'yanks' or New Zealanders 'Kiwis', etc..

It's just a bit of mucking around in a sibling rivalry type of way. When we insult it us just teasing and it's part of our sense of humor.

Did you hear people saying to hide money under the soap coz the pom's won't find it there? It's a joke that the English don't shower, which is know is bull but it's like teasing your brother.

Im thirsty :)

its not meant to be offensive, dont worry we dont hate anglish people
its just a habit that been around for ages
haha my best friend is half pom and another good friend of mine is a pommie too
sorry if you find it offensive but really we dont mean to be racist or anything

He's gone fishing.

Don't think that some Aussies are rude to you because you are a Pom, some Aussies are rude to everyone and give the rest of us a bad name, however, the vast majority of us are friendly and will welcome a friendly tourist. As for the 'Pom' question, I don't know why we call you Poms, We just do. However, we don't mean offence by it, just like we call americans 'Yanks'.

Elizabeth

The people here who were mean to you are probably mean to everyone. I wouldn't take it personally.
Other than that, I'm glad you had a good time here. We're not all mean to visitors.

There are a number of theories as to where the term originated.

1. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) strongly supports the theory that pommy originated as a contraction of "pomegranate". "Pomegranate", relates to the purported frequency of sunburn among British people in Australia, turning their fair skin the colour of pomegranates.

2. According to British Naval records the term "Pommie" came about from the red "pom-pom" on the top of the hats of British sailors who were involved in the transfer of prisoners to the Colonies.

3. "Prisoner of Mother England" or "Prisoner of (His/Her) Majesty".

Rosa

its not meant to offend you, its just slang...

dont tke it too personal, its not an insult..

now Americunt is an insult ! lol

step

You'll rarely get an Australian to admit it but Dangerous is right. There is a thing many Aussies suffer from called the 'cultural cringe' which means they feel inferior to Britain and America in terms of the arts, music, comedy etc.

To counter these feelings of insecurity many Australians (especially men) focus heavily on sport and, in particular, on beating England. Their media encourages this and actively promotes xenophobia with stories about the English designed specifically to provoke a negative reaction towards England.

Even their government acknowledges the power the English unwittingly hold over the average Australian, and used it to encourage more young people to take up sport. See:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/aussie-ads-leave-brits-insulted/2008/12/08/1228584656637.html

Take it as a compliment when an Australian is rude to you solely because of your nationality. It means their inferiority complex has kicked in.

molly

I have been called a Pom all my life (migrated at 7) and if my friends stop calling me one I would start to think they didn't like me anymore .
Its not meant as an insult when my cousin came from England for a visit it took him a while to get use to it then he realised it is part of our sense of humour and he came when we lost the Ashes but was still treated well..
I am going back to Pommie land for a visit this year so I am glad that I wont be insulted for being an Aussie.

DOtty D

ha, i've never used the word 'poms' i thought it was the americans who did that - silly me.

â™«â™ªFunny Bunnyâ™«â™ª

im a dunno.

elissa :)

same answer as the guy above me
poms are just slang just like "wog" and "a skip"
answer this: why do people call aussies skips?

Aries24

Its an abbreviation for Prisoner Of his/her Majesty, it dates back to the time when evil doers were sent to Australia as there sentence instead of being sent to prison. The Aussie's think us english are a bunch of whingers & have not forgiven us for sending all the riff raff over to them during the reign of King George!!

Dangerous

Because they have a national inferiority complex and have to feel better by adopting a chauvinistic attitudes to Johnny foreigner and making generalisations about them according to their nation of origin.

I'm a Kiwi and I've had to put up with nonsense about supposedly having a 'chip on my shoulder' (utter bollox). And yes I've been shocked at some of the absurd crap they occasionally spout about the 'poms and pommieland' (where bugger all of them have ever actually been to). And they sometimes really don't like it when I shoot their adopted anti-British stance down, and 'm not even all that pro-British I'm just more anti-anti-British if that makes any sense.

LOL looks like I'm popular!
You're all in denial yaaah! [pokes out tongue]

Say Ahhhh

I like all them asian parlours they have !!
Naughty playgrounds.
$200 bucks an hour but what an hour !
Somethin' else !

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: