Plan B Forum

One occasionally hears a Brit referring to a generic Brown-skinned person from a former colony as a "Wog." Few Brits know the origin of the term.

When the Brits were building the Suez canal there was a lot of trouble with pilfering and vandalism by the locals, but nobody could tell the people who were working for contractors as opposed to the bad guys. So they issued jackets to the workers, with the initials W.O.G.S. on the back, which stood for Working On Government Service.

Hence, WOGS.

Adultery and fornication were considered crimes in Jolly Old in times gone by, and those who were incarcerated for same would have a chalk mark on the outside of their cells indicating they were incacerated For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. F.U.C.K. Or so I've read.

Situation Normal - All Fucked Up. (SNAFU).

Others?

the fuck acronym is an urban legend

FUBAR is another military acronym tho.

"Backronyms"

I've never heard that one before--love it!

kristina wrote:"Backronyms"

I've never heard that one before--love it!

It actually stands for:

Being A Coded Knowledge Repository, Often Noted Yet Meaningless.

I also heard that WOG stood for Worthy Oriental Gentleman, but the Englishman who told me that, after hearing my story about the Suez Canal, preferred that one.

Here in Cali, we have DWO's -Driving While Oriental

Anyone who has driven in a predominate Asian community knows what I'm talkin' about. I cracked up a Black friend with that one.

DWB= driving while black is another goodie used around these parts used in numerous "racial-profiling" traffic stops.

I am a Pom - Apparently prisoner of his majesty.....dating back to when the UK used to send all the convicts out here as punishment for crimes.

But a couple of weeks ago I heard a new one....Person obviously migrated.....kinda liked that one lol

I had heard that "wog" stood for "westernized oriental gentleman". Specifically racist. Wikipedia has a different account but still racist:


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Wog in the UK is usually regarded as a racially offensive slang word referring to a dark-skinned person from Africa or Asia. It can be applied to any darker-skinned people, but is particularly applied to Afro-Caribbeans, as well as immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Use of the word is strongly discouraged in Britain, and most dictionaries refer to the word with the caution that it is derogatory and offensive.

The origin of the term is unknown, though unsupported folk etymology has much to say. Many dictionaries say "wog" derives from the Golliwogg, a blackface minstrel doll character from a children's book published in 1895. An alternative is that "wog" originates from Pollywog, a maritime term for someone who has not crossed the equator. Various acronymical origins like "western/wily oriental gentlemen" have been suggested, although the term appears to predate the regular use of acronyms.

It was first noted by lexicographer F.C. Bowen, who recorded it in 1929 in his Sea slang: a dictionary of the old-timers’ expressions and epithets, where he defines wogs as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast."[1]

The saying "The wogs begin at Calais" was originated by George Wigg, Labour MP for Dudley, in 1949. In a parliamentary debate concerning the Burmese, Wigg shouted at the Tory benches, "The Honourable Gentleman and his friends think they are all 'wogs'. Indeed, the Right Honourable Member for Woodford [i.e. Winston Churchill] thinks that the 'wogs' begin at Calais."[2] Wigg's coinage, sometimes paraphrased as "Wogs start at the Channel" or "Wogs start at Dover", is used to characterise a stodgy Europhobic viewpoint, and more generally the view that Britain (more so England) is inherently separate from and superior to the Continent. In this case, "wog" is used to compare any foreign, non-British person to those more traditionally labelled "wogs".
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yrs,
rubato

Wog in this country is not derogatory at all....Its used to describe an italian or greek person. In fact the movie Wog Boy did very well over here. i found it very confusing when I moved here and they were using the term wog as i was brought up with it being a derogative term, also Coon bad bad word in the UK yet we have cheese called it here!

Wog went out of fashion in the UK about 20 yrs ago, so I was surprised to hear it here, and even more surprised, as you were, to hear it applied to Greeks and Italians. (Fun fact, the city with the second highest population of Greeks after Athens? Melbourne!)

Let's paraphrase a little Fawlty Towers...


The Major: Strange creatures, women. I knew one once... striking-looking girl... tall, you know... father was a banker.
Basil: Really?
The Major: Don't remember the name of the bank.
Basil: Nevermind.
The Major:I must have been rather keen on her because I took her to see... Italy!
Basil: Italy?
The Major:At the Oval... fine match, marvellous finish... now, Surrey had to get thirty-three in about half an hour... she went off to powder her... powder her hands or something... women... er... never came back.
Basil:What a shame.
The Major: And the strange thing was... throughout the morning she kept referring to the Italians as wogs. "No no no," I said, "the wogs are the Indians. These people are wops." "No, no," she said. "All cricketers are wogs."
Basil:They do get awfully confused, don't they? They're not thinkers. I see it with Sybil everyday.
The Major: I do wish I could remember her name. She's still got my wallet.

POSH - Port Outbound, Starboard Home. Refers to knowledgeable Brits booking passage on steamships to India. On the way over, they wanted to be on the port (left) side of the ship as it crossed the Meditteranean to avoid the constant sun shining on the starboard side (days before air conditioning). The opposite was true on the way back.

POSH originally referred to someone who was a knowledgeable, sophisticated traveler.

But according to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (3d ed. (rev.) 2008):

perhaps from former slang posh, 'a dandy'; there is no evidence for the well-known theory that posh is formed from the initials of port out starboard home (referring to the more comfortable accommodation, out of the heat of the sun, on ships between England and India).

More likely to be a bacronym.

[C19: often said to be an acronym of the phrase port out, starboard home, the most desirable location for a cabin in British ships sailing to and from the East, being the north-facing or shaded side; but more likely to be a development of obsolete slang posh a dandy]