How come so many Americans are posting on the Aussie ebay boards now?

[daydream**believer]

Have your ebay chat boards been shut down?

Are your ebay boards boring?

Genuine question. Not having a go at anyone. Just wondering why its happening all of a sudden

[dwilke33]

Another question to the Amercian posters - are you offended by the term Yanks ?

In the United States yankee is a term that originated during the Civil War.  The southerners and southern soldiers referred to the people up north as yankees.

I suppose because Australia is down under you could refer to Americans as yanks.  Doesn't bother me.

I call people in England Brits for Englishmen.  I know the term limy, but have never used it myself.  And, the other word 'poms' or something like that, I've never heard at all.  Now I think both Americans and Brits refer to each other as 'those folks across the pond.' 🙂

[j*oono]

I'm a Pom and I have never met an English person that objected to the term.  Most Poms call themselves Poms, at least in Australia they do.  It's actually spelt pome but that doesn't look right.  It is short for prisoner of mother England.

Why would people object to Yankee?  
They were the good guys weren't they?  I probably shouldn't have asked because I know next to nothing about the American civil war.

[2106greencat]

---

@lionrose.7 wrote:

I dont mind being called a Kiwi 🙂

That photo of Steve was taken about 1996, MY husband took the photo of Steve and me.

I met the whole family and loved them

The Australia Zoo was not that big in those days and the keepers would make you a cup of tea and a Vegemite Sandwich.

---

The Crocodile Farm (which was just up the road from me) was where Bob Irwin had the first nature park (Bob as in Steve's dad, not his son LOL).

It was dinky little place that became very popular as Steve grew older and started doing the live capture etc shows for the visitors.

Now Aussie Zoo is an amazing place to visit, Bindy is adorable and you could never wish to meet a more down to earth person than Terri.

As to the term yanks etc, I am an expat Kiwi, and happy to be called a Kiwi or as a citizen of Aus happy to be termed an Ozzie.

But I did think that Yank was more of a derogatory term because as another poster pointed out, the YANKee was only one side of the USA in the civil war, so just thought I would ask so I don't upset anyone.

When I first came to Oz I called Aborigines Abo's as that was the term we had heard and thought it was a nick name like Kiwi/Ozzie)

It was not until I met and married my sons aboriginal father that he told me the term is considered derogatory and I have never used it since.

[dwilke33]

---

@j*oono wrote:

I'm a Pom and I have never met an English person that objected to the term.  Most Poms call themselves Poms, at least in Australia they do.  It's actually spelt pome but that doesn't look right.  It is short for prisoner of mother England.

Why would people object to Yankee?  
They were the good guys weren't they?  I probably shouldn't have asked because I know next to nothing about the American civil war.

---

Now we're all the good guys.:)

j*oono, thanks for the info on the term pom.  Makes perfect sense to me now.

[imastawka]

During the second world war, here in Australia, the remaining

men would grumble about the 'yanks' handing out chocolates

amd silk stoclings to the women.  These items were impossible

to get here.  So the saying went -

Bluddy yanks,  overpaid,  over s e x e d  and over here!!

Just sayin'   >>>>>

[2106greencat]

j*oono wrote:

I'm a Pom and I have never met an English person that objected to the term.  Most Poms call themselves Poms, at least in Australia they do.  It's actually spelt pome but that doesn't look right.  It is short for prisoner of mother England.

Had no idea that was where the term came from, learn something everyday.

[this-one-time-at-bandcamp]

In the United States yankee is a term that originated during the Civil War. 

Completely untrue........the Brits used the term 'yankee doodle" prior to the revolutionary war........

Traditions place its origin in a pre-Revolutionary War song originally sung by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle

[lionrose.7]

terms pommy, pommie and pom, in Australia and New Zealand usually denotes an English person (or, less commonly, people from other parts of the UK).[7] The Oxford Dictionary defines their use as "often derogatory" [8] but after complaints to the Australian Advertising Standards Board regarding five advertisements poking fun at "Poms", the Board ruled in 2006 that these words are inoffensive, in part because they are "largely used in playful or affectionate terms".[9] The New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority made a similar ruling in 2010.[10]

There are several folk etymologies for Pommy or Pom. The best-documented of these is that pommy originated as a contraction of "pomegranate".[11][12] According to this explanation, "pomegranate" was Australian rhyming slang for "immigrant" ("Jimmy Grant").[13] Usage of "pomegranate" for English people may have been strengthened by a belief in Australia that sunburn occurred more frequently among English immigrants, turning those with fair skin the colour of pomegranates.[14] Another explanation – now generally considered to be a false etymology – was that "pom" or "pommy" were derived from an acronym such as POM ("Prisoner of Millbank"), POME ("Prisoner of Mother England") or POHMS ("Prisoner Of Her Majesty's Service").[15] However, there is no evidence that such terms, or their acronyms, were used in Australia when "pom" and "pommy" entered use there.

According the Prison-Gate, Lord David Ramsbotham, the term POMs derives from "Prisoners of Millbank". Prisoners awaiting transportation were held in former warship hulks alongside Millbank Prison on what is now the site of Tate Britain. The initials, POM, stamped on their issued shirts became the name to describe those newly arrived from England. Whether rumour or fact as the origination, the fact that Millbank Prison was on the Thames lends credibility to this origination.

[this-one-time-at-bandcamp]

During the second world war, here in Australia, the remaining

men would grumble about the 'yanks' handing out chocolates

amd silk stoclings to the women.  These items were impossible

to get here.  So the saying went -

Bluddy yanks,  overpaid,  over s e x e d  and over here!!

That little homily has been attributed to the pommey layabouts whose girlfriends and wives were seduced by silk stockings, k-rations, and marlboros during the pre-invasion buildup..........

Oh, I am the result of a Yank having his way with a daughter of Australia (post nuptials, of course)..........

[aps1080]

Also a pom.

Never been offended by it.