>According to my Webster's 9th Collegiate dictionary, > >"pommy" or "pommie" or "pom" is an Oz term [origins unkn. but in >1915] referring to Britons, esp. a British immigrant -- often >used disparagingly. > > yes and prisoners of her majesty is the most popularly accepted version of the meaning. > > >I dunno, but this seems small change compared to one student in >my kid's school calling another a "f**king n***er." They're both >about 8 years old (and, strangely, both of African-American >persuasion). Then another, tragically a white girl, picked up >this term of abuse. It is a therapeutic school, but this stuff is >disgusting. no, not a small change. (a) the discussion arose b/c a yorkshireman referred to himself as a pom and another person on the list asked for the esoterica to be defined. (b) it is not disgusting to enquire and discuss the origins of terms which are part of cultural exchanges. (c) as i understand it the whites call the african americans - niggers (which in my dictionary says negro or a person of dark skin) as an insult come put down. the direction here is former slave owner to slave. the use of the term pom is strictly reverse. former colonial masters being attacked by the outcasts from so-called sophisticated english society for there pomposity and out dated views to us. and if you recall how transportation started jim there is a rich story to tell. the enclosures and corn laws forced otherwise free farmers (pre-capitalist) into towns to survive. stealing followed to eat. the english locked them up on the thames in ships but thatwas too much for them to look at. so they came in search of OZ - slaughtered the aboriginals, decimated local culture, and then in the C20 started coming here themselves to tell us how to run our country better. that is how pom arose....b/c a lot of poor english came here on assisted passage but still reflected the earlier transportation/colonial culture. i don't find it disgusting discussing this at all. kind regards bill -- #### ## William F. Mitchell ####### #### Head of Economics Department ################# University of Newcastle #################### New South Wales, Australia ###################* E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ################### Phone: +61 49 215065 ##### ## ### +61 49 215027 Fax: +61 49 216919 ## WWW Home Page: http://econ-www.newcastle.edu.au/~bill/billyhp.html