Posted by Allan_Lang on June 14, 2006 at 09:15:34 from 202.189.64.26 user Allan_Lang.
In Reply to: Re: Milk In Tea posted by John Nichols on June 13, 2006 at 21:16:31:
Actually no. If that was the case the common meaning would be "criminal" rather than "ignorant newcomer". (In the 1780's they were all pommies, convict and trooper alike)
It was only after the arrival of free settlers was there a need to distinguish inexperienced arrivals - and the first word was "JimmyGrant" (c.1840), from "immigrant", shortemed, as is the case for rhyming slang, to "Jimmies" (c.1860)
The next shift didn't come until the mass immigration of the 1870s, when it became the habit of local children to taunt newcomers with "Immigrant, Jimmegrant, Pomegrant (later Pommeys)!"
Use in the period 1880-1912 is recorded in oral history. The first writtmn reference was in The Bulletin of 14 November 1912 - far too late to have any connexion to convicts