Why are British called pommies?
Michel Gusikowski
2025-04-21 07:52:00
Count answers: 0
One attractive explanation claims the letters ‘POME’ or ‘POHM’ were stamped on the clothing of British prisoners in the late 1800’s, as an acronym of ‘Prisoner of Mother England’ or ‘Prisoner Of Her Majesty.’ However, this has been widely debunked, as none of the sketches or remaining clothes from the period bare any such markings. The most widely accepted theory goes that the word was originally a shortening of pomegranate. The first theory is that visiting Englishman would go a bright red colour reminiscent of a ripe pomegranate after a few days of sun exposure, which seems legit. Another contests pomegranate is Aussie rhyming slang for immigrant, although after a few goes saying one word after the other I can’t quite seem to make that work. The final theory states that British sailors trying to fight off scurvy would collect as many of the fruits as they could carry during stop-overs in Aus. This one might have a glimmer of truth, as it shares a common theme with the etymology of the Limey- another derogatory term for Brits- based on the scurvy prevention method of our ancient mariners. The term Pom first popped up in around 1913, at which point, according to a Sydney Sun clipping, it eclipsed ‘new chum’ as the popular way to refer to Brits down under.
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