And, anyway, the term Pom was used before the Great War, the earliest instances cited in the Oxford English Dictionary dating to 1912. Granted it was the first occasion that men from the two nations spent much time in close proximity but it requires a stretch of the imagination to think that the Aussies, inventive in their use of language as they are, made this linguistic jump. Moving away from the world of convicts, another theory is that it is an abbreviation of pommes de terre, the spud being a staple and favourite part of the diet of the British troops during the First World War. Why would the early settlers, the majority of whom were British, use a term which is intended to differentiate incomers from those who had been born and raised Down Under? It smacks of convenient retro-fitting to me. Perhaps the first syllable of the nickname gave rise to the term for Brits? Alternatively, it could be a reference to their port of arrival, Port of Melbourne?
In truth, they were often little more than petty criminals: those who were sentenced to transportation to the other side of the world for seven years or more often received the punishment for what, to modern eyes, seem trifling misdemeanours.Īnother theory is that it derives from Portsmouth, the port from which the convict ships set out, a city often known as Pompey. Once Captain Cook had ‘discovered’ the Australian continent and the British started to colonise it, to the understandable dismay and inconvenience of the existing aboriginal population, it was used as a dumping ground for what then were considered to be the detritus of British society. To the Australians we English are Poms, a description usually bracketed at both ends by epithets, juicy, racy and pejorative. The rivalry on the field is intense and the spectators, their larynxes suitably lubricated by amber nectar, are quick to join in. The one sporting occasion I always look forward to is the Ashes series, a contest fought out by the cricketing heroes of England and Australia. With England about to take on Australia in The Ashes, Martin Fone ponders the derivation of the Aussies nickname for us: Poms. Country Life's Top 100 architects, builders, designers and gardeners.
0 kommentar(er)
