Pommy

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Jeff Boyes from Boones Mill near Roanoke in Virginia.

Hello, Jeff.

Hi, Jeff.

You don’t sound like you grew up there.

That’s true.

That’s true.

As a matter of fact, I was born in Australia, and I’ve been living in America for the last 30 years.

Okay.

Well, what can we help you with?

Well, growing up in Australia, early in the 1960s and earlier, there was a lot of English migrants coming out to Australia.

I think there was some sort of assisted passage.

And they were put in hostels, and Australians referred to them as Pommies.

And it was semi-derogatory, but I don’t think they…

Now it’s obviously not derogatory, so I’m sure they’re not upset about it.

And it was just recently…

I was always told that Pommie meant prisoner of Mother England, P-O-M-E.

But that didn’t sound sensible for the way an Australian would pronounce P-O-M-E.

We’d say P-O-M-E or something.

Then my son said that he heard that it was P-O-H-M, Prisoner of Her Majesty, that they had on the back of their garments and that this is where Pommie came from.

And so I was just wondering whether you could solve the problem for me and let me know where it really came from.

Well, you can come close.

And the first way you can come close is to talk about some of those acronyms.

So one of the theories was that it came from P-O-M-E, Prisoner of Mother England, right?

That’s correct.

That’s the assisted passage you’re talking about?

Assisted passage meaning that they were a criminal and they were shipped to Australia in order to straighten them up?

Oh, yes.

The first fleet was all basically criminals from Britain.

And there was another acronym, P-O-H-M, and there have been some others that have been proposed as well.

But unfortunately, there’s no evidence at all in the written record that these things are true at all.

These acronyms probably are apocryphal.

Somebody came up with them after the fact.

Yeah, that sounds like it to me.

The best theory that we have, Jeffrey, and it’s a pretty good one, it’s not 100%, is that it’s simply a reference to the fact that the newcomers didn’t know enough to wear hats, and so they tend to get sunburned heads, and their heads look like pomegranates.

And so they called them poms or pommies for short.

And it’s not 100%, but I think it’s a far more reliable story and far more possible story, and certainly within the kind of humor that Australian slang tends to have.

Yeah, well, I can imagine them putting an I.E. on the end of everything, like putting another shrimp on the barbie.

Right.

And so if it was a pom, then pommy would be a natural alliteration from that.

So, yeah, maybe so it was because they had sunburned heads.

Yeah, it’s possible.

You know, the sunburned heads looked like pomegranates.

And this expression goes back to at least 1913.

It’s probably a little bit older.

And it’s interesting to hear you say that it’s not really offensive anymore because most of the dictionaries that I checked indicate that it’s usually derogatory or still considered offensive.

But you’re saying that in colloquial everyday English that people don’t mind so much anymore being called pommy.

Well, it never offended me.

Oh, I see.

I did marry an English wife at one point, and she didn’t worry.

But, I mean, the British have been labeled with more names, I think, because in America here you call them limeys, right?

Yeah, that’s old-fashioned, too, though.

Is that so derogatory, limey?

It’s a sort of similar way.

It’s semi-derogatory.

I guess it was because they ate limes when they were on the boats.

Yeah, to avoid scurvy.

I want a fruit name for us.

You guys have pomegranate.

They have limey.

No, they just call us septics.

Septic tanks, yeah.

Australians had a terrible saying for Americans.

They’d call them septic tanks.

Oh, that’s right.

And then they shortened it to septics.

And, of course, it was an alliteration of yanks.

Right, rhyming slang for Yanks.

That’s right, receptics.

I forgot about Yanks.

I wouldn’t use it over here.

Probably a good decision there.

Right, right.

So that’s the best that we can offer you on POMI.

How did we do?

Oh, you did well.

That satisfies me.

That makes more sense than P-O-M-E.

So I hope there’s not hundreds of listeners calling in offended now.

No, no, no.

We’ll be fine.

We’ll just forward the calls to you.

Is that okay?

Yeah, that’s right.

When I first came to America, I had a lot of fun with the accent here.

And the first one I did was I was mowing my grass, and I needed some…

I went down to the gas station with a can, and I said to the guy, I want some oil for me mower.

And he looked at me, and I said, I want some oil for me mower.

And he said, oil for your mower.

And I said, yeah, you know, cut the grass.

And he said, oh, you want some oh for your more.

I learned very quickly that the R in Virginia is highly accentuated.

Oh, that’s priceless.

I’ve survived since anyway.

But I love the show and it was very fascinating and I enjoyed listening to it on Radio IQ here in Roanoke.

Fantastic. It was our pleasure to have you on the program, Jeffrey.

Thank you for calling.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks very much. Bye-bye.

Yeah, that reminds me when I worked in information technology for an advertising agency in New York City, and one fellow, a Scotsman, called up the help desk and said, Grant, someone has nicked my lead.

It took me several seconds to figure out what he meant.

Somebody had stolen the cable for his computer.

Nicked my lead.

Yeah, palmy, palmy.

Yeah, it’s not something that we use.

It’s interesting to have those derogatory words that are kind of like between two cultures.

It’s between the Australians and the British, and it’s not something the Americans participate in, the use of the word palmy.

Exactly.

Interesting.

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