THE MEANING OF OZ - All you need to know!

DROP BEARS KILLED JFK!

I'm a drop bear and so's my wife!

I had to look that up!!!!! Good scary stuff.

The word Australia when referred to informally with its first three letters becomes Aus. When Aus or Aussie, the short form for an Australian, is pronounced for fun with a hissing sound at the end, it sounds as though the word being pronounced has the spelling Oz.
Why is Australia called Oz? - Times of India
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Why-is-Australia-called-Oz/articleshow/2116820.cms

Wouldn't that be a buzz rather than a hiss?

I don't know how many Americans know how much Australians wince inside when you call us 'ossies' and not 'ozzies'.

Not sure why we turn the S into a Z but we do it for mosquitoes too - i.e we call them mozzies, not mossies.

In case I didn't make the pronunciation difference clear consider the difference between Pisa and Pizza.

Oh god yes!

I agree with you; I just happened to copy that one from the net.

Yeah I read your cited source - some Indian guy in 2008.

What’s wrong with that “Indian guys” opinion? We are open to any interpretation that’s better.

Like I said in my first reply Tak - it's not a hissing sound it's a buzzing sound - apart from that he's right. Australian have long truncated words and added an E or O sound to the end. it wasn't uncommon, mid last-century, for an expat to comment "I'd like to get back to Aussie for my brother's wedding." But Aussie has always been pronounced Ozzie (even though the 'aus' in 'Australia' is always pronounced 'oss').

It's not much of progression to shorten Aussie to Oz - I'm guessing around the mid to late 50s - as evidence by the birth of Oz Magazine.

The fact that it references a logic-denying, make-believe land (west of California) run by an incompetent wizard adds to the resonanance.

hingehead, I've visited the Land Down Under twice, and have not had any problems with the sound of words. Have also been to Scotland, Ireland, and England, several times. I guess my ear is accustomed to different pronunciation of words having traveled to 88 countries. That brings to mind the sound of English words spoken by our parents. A proper hard R is actually just as difficult to pronounce as an L for Japanese speakers, and the hardest words to pronounce are those with both sounds (for example, parallel).l's and r's."

I never suggested otherwise. But a lot of Americans say ossie instead of ozzie and it's fingernails on the blackboard of the Australian soul.

Bless your tender heart.

Thank you for not mentioning my soft head.

OK, but do you guys really call Speedo's Budgie Smugglers? I like that so much better.

Absolutely, a recent prime minister was famous for wearing them - and the National Broadcaster often reported on them:
https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/posts/tony-abbott-has-a-new-pair-of-budgie-smugglers-to-add-to-his-collectionthe-prime/10154337426364988/

Well, it's much more accurate than freaking Speedos.

"Floss" is something we use to clean our teeth with.