Are We Desperate to be Miserable?

[Mr Kobayashi]

Correct but with a slight addition. It was when the £10 poms came over in the 60's to Oz, all they did was moan. About everything. The aussies gave them the name and it suits us/them.

You should be miserable, wrong again.

The Oxford English Dictionary and its chief word detective

Departing OED editor John Simpson reflects on his career investigating the origins of words.

www.bbc.co.uk

Pom​

An enduring myth is that the word pom (as in whinging pom and other more colourful expressions) is an acronym from either "Prisoner of His Majesty" or even "Permit of Migration", for the original convicts or settlers who sailed from Britain to Australia.
The first recorded use of pom comes from 1912, which is quite - but not unnaturally - early for an acronym.
There is no historical documentation to support these myths (rather like the disproved theory that posh derives from tickets for the upmarket cabins on the old P&O liners - port out, starboard home). Instead the etymology is apparently more circuitous.
We start with the word immigrant, well-established by the mid 19th Century as a settler. In a joking way people would play with immigrant from around 1850 or so, turning it into a proper name (Jimmy Grant), to give the strange immigrants a pseudo-personality.
Equally playfully, a Jimmy Grant morphed around 1912 into pomegranate and immediately into pom, which it has stuck as till today.

 

[paulchapo]

And they will still be Welsh.

....or scouse....

 

[paulchapo]

All together now......

 

[Blue Mist]

You should be miserable, wrong again.

The Oxford English Dictionary and its chief word detective

Departing OED editor John Simpson reflects on his career investigating the origins of words.

www.bbc.co.uk

Pom​

An enduring myth is that the word pom (as in whinging pom and other more colourful expressions) is an acronym from either "Prisoner of His Majesty" or even "Permit of Migration", for the original convicts or settlers who sailed from Britain to Australia.
The first recorded use of pom comes from 1912, which is quite - but not unnaturally - early for an acronym.
There is no historical documentation to support these myths (rather like the disproved theory that posh derives from tickets for the upmarket cabins on the old P&O liners - port out, starboard home). Instead the etymology is apparently more circuitous.
We start with the word immigrant, well-established by the mid 19th Century as a settler. In a joking way people would play with immigrant from around 1850 or so, turning it into a proper name (Jimmy Grant), to give the strange immigrants a pseudo-personality.
Equally playfully, a Jimmy Grant morphed around 1912 into pomegranate and immediately into pom, which it has stuck as till today.

Oh dear Mr Kobayashi, oh dear.
We were not talking about the term Pom. We were talking about brits being called whinging poms by the aussies.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Oh dear Mr Kobayashi, oh dear.
We were not talking about the term Pom. We were talking about brits being called whinging poms by the aussies.

Fuck off you winning whinging pom.

 

[Kompany Car]

Have you tried cat curry yet?

Katsu with pawpawdoms or Purrsian ?

 

[paulchapo]

Most of Off Topic seems to be doom and gloom. Posters seem to revel in being miserable. Why ?
I am in Noth Wales on the coast, a young woman took over a failing beachfront cafe. She did it up and now one part is a cafe the other for exercise classes. She employs at least 10 people. The beer she sells is brewed locally employing ?
A Pizza van, complete with wood fired oven comes twice a week. It employs 6 people. (It goes elsewhere on other days)
The village pub was closed, the locals re opened it, it brings work to 10 people at least. Again the beer is brewed locally including 4 barrels from a bloke 2 doors away who has set up his own micro brewery. As a community project they are now growing their own hops to use in his beer and he wants to expand.
Everything about this place is vibrant with a will to succeed but at the same time be friendly, local and helpful to others.
No one here seems to moan about how shit life is, how its unfair, nobody understands etc etc.
So, can everybody stop being so miserable, please.

We're miserable because City have fucked up our lives! Why do you think we started supporting them? For success, glamour, winning trophies, watching great football?? NO!!!! We looked at all the options and thought....which club is going to cause us the most misery? That has a chairman that does everything in his power to mess things up, spending millions in the process and almost bankrupting them. That appoints managers like Alan Ball, Frank Clark and Steve Coppell. That signs players like Jamie Pollock, Buster Phillips and Lee Bradbury. That could be winning games 3-0 and still lose. That could get knocked out of the FA cup by Halifax, Shrewsbury and other giants of English football. We considered carefully and chose Manchester City! It was perfect for us miseries. We could wallow in our pain and despair,cry at failure after failure, sing, "You're not fit to wear the shirt, What the fuck is going on, Swales out!" We were so happy! Then in 2008 disaster struck and it's been bloody purgatory since. As the great Peter Drury once said, "Where do they go from here?" Where indeed?