![]() This strange French nickname for the English started out as an 18th-century gastronomic term describing the English style of cooking beef. Other nicknames for Brits: Le Rosbif/Rosbeef Please comment below if you’re familiar with this nickname, which seems to be unrelated to the lime/vitamin C/scurvy etymology, despite the apparent citrus connection. It originates from the Hokkien dialect language referring to the “red hair” British military based in the Straits Settlements after the Second World War.” Wikipedia lists no citations or verifications, and I can’t find a reference to this nickname anywhere else, in any dictionary. Nothing to do with apples, though.Īccording to Wikipedia, “”Lemon Head” is a term to describe British and other Western nationalities in Malaysia and Singapore. or P.O.H.M.E) is an acronym for Prisoner of Mother England, Prisoner of Her Majesty’s Exile, or Prisoner of Millbank (the holding center for prisoners awaiting transport to Australia). ![]() The dictionary cites, as evidence, a line from an article in the 14 November 1912 edition of the Australian newspaper The Bulletin: “The other day a Pummy Grant (assisted immigrant) was handed a bridle and told to catch a horse.” Another explanation for naming Brits after pomegranates is the color they share when British people spend too much time underthe Australian sun. But why that particular fruit? The OED argues that pomegranate is Australian rhyming slang (now defunct) for immigrant. There’s no definitive etymology for the nickname, but most agree that it derives from the name of the succulent Middle Eastern fruit known as the pomegranate. Pom (also pommy or pommie) is a slang term used in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to describe a British person - especially a recent immigrant. But not to be confused with blimey, a wonderful British word for wow (derived from “God blind me”). Originally an insult (and still listed as offensive by the OED), limey is rarely used nowadays. But why is it that the Brits are tutti fruity when it comes to the nicknames historically bestowed on them?Ī close look at the names’ origins suggests that the fruit connection is entirely coincidental.Ī colloquial name for British sailors, as they commonly sucked on limes (or were given rations of lime juice) to prevent scurvy - a disease caused by lack of vitamin C that was common among seafarers. We all know that “everyone’s a fruit and nut case” - as Cadbury’s told us in the 1970s when we sang along with The Nutcracker fruitcakes. ![]()
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