| Title: | The Joy of Lex |
| Notice: | A Notes File even your grammar could love |
| Moderator: | THEBAY::SYSTEM |
| Created: | Fri Feb 28 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Jun 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1192 |
| Total number of notes: | 42769 |
Please pardon a dumb, uncultured Yank but why, o, why is Australia referred to as "Oz"? Actually, I'm not alone: I asked several people in my department and most were unware of the reference, let alone the meaning. --andy (perplexed in Taxachusetts)
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 697.1 | Homophonic similarities | SSGBPM::KENAH | Ten billion dreams every night... | Thu Jul 20 1989 23:36 | 8 |
Probably because the Australian pronunciation of the
first syllable of the word "Australia" sounds something
like "Oz."
What the pronunciation of the first syllable sounds like
in Massachusetts, I leave to the reader's imagination.
andrew
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| 697.2 | OZ :== Old Zeland | THEGIZ::PITARD | But what if *I* don't want to???? | Fri Jul 21 1989 15:57 | 9 |
Actually, I think that OZ stands for Old Zeland. Please correct me if I'm wrong....... ->Jay | |||||
| 697.3 | from a land of the 17% mortgage... | LAMHRA::WHORLOW | 1:25000 - a magic number | Mon Jul 24 1989 05:54 | 15 |
G'day
OZ is a corruption of Aus of Australia...
as Australia is pronounced Oztralia by the locals, if not by the
indiginants....
It has no reference to the books by L. Frank Baum as many of the
locals have not reached that level of erudition..
Bob Hawke is _NOT_ the Wizard of Oz, nor is treasurer Keating....
derek
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| 697.4 | Not Kansas | MARVIN::WALSH | Mon Jul 24 1989 18:09 | 1 | |
I thought they called it Oz because it definitely wasn't Kansas. | |||||
| 697.5 | SSDEVO::EGGERS | Anybody can fly with an engine. | Tue Jul 25 1989 02:33 | 1 | |
Well, at least not in Toto. | |||||
| 697.6 | no wizardry | CHEFS::BUXTON | Wed Jul 26 1989 15:24 | 8 | |
I believe that 'Austrailians' is shortened and corrupted to 'Auzzies'
which in turn is corrupted to 'Oz' (Auz) to describe the place.
After these successive corruptions it dosn't seem to matter how
the word is spelt. Can they spell?
Bucko...
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| 697.7 | splel, cors us cn splel | LAMHRA::WHORLOW | 1:25000 - a magic number | Thu Jul 27 1989 01:05 | 22 |
G'day,
Akkershally, it is spelled auSSies.... but that's a minor detail.
Sure Australians can spell.
in Greek,Italian,Maltese,Lebanese,Vietnamese,Chinese,Austrian, Turkish,
Jugoslavian, Czechoslovakian, Ukrain, English, Irish,French,German,Swiss
Spanish, Peruvian, and many more including some 12 in Tibetan!
Playnig 'Spot the Aussie' is a national pastime!
Aussies have been corrupted for many years - most came here in the
early days as convicts ....
derek
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