![]() It was produced by the noted etymologist/lexicographer, Michael Quinion. Unfortunately, neither TOED nor AND is available free online, but if you click here you will find a reliable web-page on the matter. ![]() TOED claims this to be (quote): "the most widely-accepted" etymology, which makes sense for two reasons.a)pomegranate very roughly rhymes with 'immigrant' and hence, "immygran(i)t/pommygranate" was possibly a jokey catcall first used by schoolboys - and b) the pomegranate is a bright red fruit resembling the sunburnt skin of newcomers to Australia. c) If �pommy/pom' had anything whatever to do with prisoners or acronyms, why did theses words not appear on paper anywhere until 130 years after Australia became a penal colony and about three generations after the last convicts were sent to New South Wales?īoth the OED and the AND say the source is obscure, but suggest �pommy' might be associated with 'pomegranate' - as Mike also said above - a concept first outlined in 1923, within a decade of the word's first appearance in print. Here are a few key historical facts.a) 'Pommy' appeared nowhere in print before 1915 and b) �Pom' then appeared four years later. Nobody knows for sure what the etymology of �pom/my/mie' is, but neither The Oxford English Dictionary (TOED) nor the Australian National Dictionary (AND) even mentions the idea that it might have anything to do with prisoners or acronyms involving prisoners - eg from Prisoner of Mother England. Pom/pommie/pommy are not acronyms, as many claim and as Mike points out above.
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