h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a lot of Poms' don't realise is the term Pommie can be an expression of friendship, indeed mateship.

The saying "A good pommie bastard" is probably as high a compliment as any any Aussie or New Zealand male will give anyone, including the handbrake (wife, girlfriend)

Nope... but close...

POM = Prisoner Of (her) Majesty

Prisoner Of (her) Majesty, like that makes sense. POMs are the english not the emigre's. The english were not prisoners the australians were the prisoners. Thus if your definition is correct POM would be an english word for australian and not an australian word for an englishmen. Mine might not be the correct etymology but at least it makes sense.

Property of Majesty was a tag sewn into the clothes worn by the prisoners - mainly Irish and Scots, not English - who were transported to Australia. When released after serving their sentences they had no way of getting back to Britain (no money to purchase a ticket aboard ship) so with the military and other early immigrants stayed on to populate early Australia.

The later British immigrants were called Poms by the original settlers. Incidentally the Italian and Greek immigrants were known as Wogs. (Western Oriental Gentleman).

New Zealand, which had no prisoner immigrants, also calls British people Poms.

That is only because New Zealand is the 7th state of Australia.

Hold on, GB! Don't lose your head at the prospect of an NZer calling you something you're not!

I don't think NZ could be considered the 7th state of Australia - they've got their own fairly distinctive accent, and slang for that matter. As people, they are very different from Australians, whether they call Poms "Poms", or "British".

Hypoman, I would never try to hurt the feelings of a kiwi, heck my brother-in-law is one. Anyway, Looneytunes gives as a good as he gets, so I saw it as a window of opportunity

In the Australian constitution there is provision for NZ to become a state of Australia. I believe one day it will happen but only when NZ decides to give up soverignity.

At the moment the brain drain from NZ to Australia has the effect of raising the IQ levels of both countries.

Incidently South Australia also had no transported prisoners. This is probably why Adelaide is the prettiest and best laid out city in Australia

South Australia had no prisoner population, and Adelaide is a pretty city, but it's not particularly well laid out - it takes far too long to get from anywhere in Adelaide to anywhere else. I suspect the nice points about Adelaide are more the result of the prevailing climate and the attitude it sponsors than any lack of founding prisoners.

The brain drain from NZ to Australia only serves to counterbalance the brain drain from Australia to the rest of the world, which is why Australia's population AND its overall intelligence level are increasing.

Point taken, GB. Twist the knife, I say!

I am not an expert on Australian history, (I'm not really an expert on anything really) but if australia was populated by scotish and irish convicts why isn't the australian accent more gaelic and less cockney?

Inter-breeding I guess.

Perhaps for the same reason, American, Canadian and New Zealand accents have evolved differently from the original British/Irish/European invaders.

I suppose you could say the same for the Spanish and Portugese speakers in South America.

Do mongrel dogs bark differently to pure-breed ones?

There's a definite "arf", whereas with English dogs you get a kind of yappy "Oof!". Also, English dogs don't wear hats with corks dangling from the brim.

Ric, Ric, Ric...
ou misuderstand...
The Australians who were already there called the new arrivals (i.e. British convicts) the POMs. Hence, the term for an Englishman has stuck.

Another less plausible theory for the derivation of Pom is that the convicts were so crammed into the prison transportation ships, that they resembled pips in a pomegranate.

Just who were these original australians? The first fleet arrived on 18/1/1788 with a population of 1530 settlers of whom 736 were convicts. Unless the first 794 to get off the boat instantly decided to reclasify themselves as Australians and regard the convists who got off the boat a few minutes later as stll being english there was no one in australia to equate being a prisoner with being english. thus Prisoner of Mother England (or Prisoner of Her Majesty) makes no sence.


ric regrets that this correspondence is now closed.

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

The hicken, or there would have ben nothing to incubate the egg. (Don't argue with me, I spet two months studying the gestation of the chicken in yr. 8)

The original Australians (aborigines) have been in Australia since time began. Maybe Pom is a native word meaning white land stealer?

Sorry to disappoint, but according to what they teach us in school, Aboriginies came to Australia about 50, 000 years ago from Asia. Apparently they sailed across from Indonesia in little boats. Some idiot (a white idiot too) tried to recreate this voyage, but had to bail out cos his over-sized excuse for a raft was in danger of capsizing. He tried again with a smaller version of the same thing and had to bail out for the same reason, cos this time the seas were worse than the first time he crossed.

Sooooo my guess is that 'Pom' is a word used by the Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombats, Duckbill Platypuses (Platypi), and other such native animals - cos ther's no denying that they are the original Australians!!!!

And never underestimate the vocabulary of a galah

Here in Britain we also have wild, unintelligent creatures with a strangely wide vocabulary.

The local slang for them is "M.P.s".....