QUOTE: Originally posted by iandor Vic There are many theories where and how this word originated but it generally refers to anyone from Britain but mainly English people. Britain is our mother and Ireland is also our illegitimate mother as well; and Wales and Scotland are our aunties. USA and Canada are our big brothers and New Zealand is little brother and South Africa is our illegitimate cousin. The Welsh and to a lesser extant the Scots are regarded as Poms with their brains kicked in. This is the view of a Sydneysider, as I think about 40 % of all people from Sydney can trace their lineage back to Ireland. I have been married twice and both wives were half English and half Irish and I am half English and half Scottish. So the closer you are to us the more likely we are to put sht on you, particularly so on ourselves, so in this back to front country; if we insult you it is only because we like you. Another funny thing the term Mr is just about never used; as to many it is verging on being an insult, in truth it means "we don't relate to you" and to call yourself Mr is thejust about the worst thing you can do, irrespective of who you are. For instance we would call George W Bush, George and only Mr if we didn't like him. I think this is to do with our convict past, anyone who professes to be better than any one else is not to be trusted. Our Prime Minister had George over for a Barbie one day and he wanted to meet Steve Erwin; and i can tell you Steve called him George or even Bushie. The minute a cricket or rugby tour is announced, the British press get right into our players about anything they can, even people who are no longer playing; even some that are dead. They only do this in self defence because anything they do we are are lot tougher on them. To give you an idea, their was a bloke called Harold Larwood; a fast bowler (cricket) a very fast English bowler who was directed by his captain to bowl at the man and not the wicket, this was termed the "bodyline series" in 1932. After WW2 he migrated to a place called Gosford just north of Sydney and as recently as the ninetees he was still getting death threats in the mail. So to fini***he idea; Ronnies idea of pomegranat is the most common accepted here but so is the term refering to our convict past about POHM Prisoner Of His Majesty. Also a British Naval term Port Out Marker is to do with convict ships leaving Albion for Australia. Hope you get something from all this and may explain some of the things i have had to say but also be aware Sydneysiders are as different from other Aussies, as New Yorkers are from your average yank. And the similarity to New Yorkers does not end there. Regards Ian
Have fun with your trains
QUOTE: Originally posted by ronnielouw Hi vsmith Excuse me butting in on your question to Ian but I thought you might just be interested in a "South African" take. The legend in this country is that in the 1900 Boer War between the South African Boers (farmers) and the British (Redcoats) fre***roops arriving from England were not accustomed to the harsh African sun and very quickly became bright red in the neck and face. This led to the coining of two derisive nicknames for the sunburned British soldier. The one was "rooinek" meaning "red neck" which remains an insult in this country to this day and the other was "Pommie" as in "red as a pomegranate". [:P]
I am a person with a very active inner child. This is why my wife loves me so. Willoughby, Ohio - the home of the CP & E RR. OTTS Founder www.spankybird.shutterfly.com
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