| > seppos seppo is short for septic, which is short for septic tank, which rhymes with yank, and yank is a word used for any American. And although yank comes from yankee, we mostly don’t discriminate between north and south so it is a general term. Like all words in Aussie only context can make it insulting - it can just as easily be used in a friendly way. Apparently the word seppo is not used much, maybe mostly by older Ockers. I’m summarising a long discussion on the word and usage that goes into more detail: https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-australians-call-a... > what is it with Australians and having the cheesiest names for everything It is just language diverging memetically. A small part of it is signalling you are not a stuck up snob. The wannabe hoity-toity “I’m better than you”-types try and change their accent and word usage to match some “educated” upperclassish snobby accent and then they speak down to others and try to correct their English. Some of the snobby accent is memetic - due to hanging around a particular social group. The accusation of baby-talk and cheesy comes across as aggressively stuck-up to me. I’m from New Zealand and it is fun to see some snobby bitch get drunk and then hear her accent shift to some bogan accent(≈hick drawl) from their childhood. I’ve seen the same thing with some suits in a bimmer in a wealthy suburb change their whole demeanour to rural farmer-types given circumstances. In New Zealand farmers are often wealthy and their kids often get expensive private education and move into professional jobs. |