Talk:Down Under

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From the sentence

Despite the term's wide use elsewhere in the English-speaking world, it is rarely used by Australians themselves, many of whom regard it with some derision as a nickname bestowed by inhabitants of other countries.

i've removed the portion i have bolded here. I might have simply replaced it with "and others' use of it is seldom welcome." But

  • as it was it used too many words to say too little;
  • i fear that equivalent alternative omits the real point the previous version was hoping to express, and that its author would feel mentioning unwelcomeness without going on to mention derision was suggesting it is merely unwelcome, and
  • i hope someone better informed can tell us whether Australians find it merely foreign, offensive, an insipid insult, tired, ignorant, or what. I'd like to see replacement language back in the article, telling us more about how and why they deride it.

BTW, it doesn't help that "bestowed" is unencyclopedic, be being either overly florid or ironic, and that "inhabitants of other countries" is four words where "foreigners" would not be misunderstood.
--Jerzy•t 05:10, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Comment on the bold part:
As an Aussie, I can tell you that Aussie's do not find the term "Down Under" derisive in any manner;
in fact, "Down Under" is spoken with pride!
Inhabitants of other countries are not the ones bestowing this term upon Australians, it is we ourselves who did this (with pride).
and it is not true that it is rarely used by Aussies, it just seems that way because it can be interchanged with the term "Oz". ,br.--A proud Aussie

[edit] So that's where it comes from?

I'd always assumed that the use of "Down Under" to mean Australia was more or less restricted to the British Isles, or at least Europe, with Australia being commonly regarded as our antipodes, therefore "under" us from our point of view. In fact, Australia isn't quite on the opposite side of the world to us, but the concept extends. (When seeing someone digging what seems a deep hole, some might jokingly ask, "You digging to Australia?") On this basis, one shouldn't be surprised that Australians rarely use the term, as to them it would mean Europe.

But according to this, it comes from the fact that it's in the southern hemisphere. But then why Australia rather than the southern parts of Africa or South America, or even more appropriately, Antarctica?

Moreover, do Australians still consider north to be at the top of a map and south at the bottom? The Book Can You Believe Your Eyes? (I'm not sure when I last read it) shows an "upside-down" map of the world and notes from what I recall that, when Australian students are asked to draw a map of the world, they will often draw something resembling it. -- Smjg 17:38, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

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