Wog

1. Prior to its modern usage, the word was used to describe a virus. i.e. if many people are suffering colds and 'flu, you may hear older Australians say things like, 'there seems to be a wog going around'. 2. An abbreviation of golliwog, a black faced minstrel doll. The word was originally used by whites in England to described black people. When the 10 pound pomegranates (poms) came to Aus. during the 'White Australia Policy' there weren't many blacks in the cities so the slang morphed to describe the darker skinned, dark haired locals which at the time were mainly Greeks and Italians. Later as more Mediterranean immigrants arrived; Lebanese, Maltese, etc., they were also called wogs. Even caucasian looking immigrants were branded as wogs due to non-English accents. Eventually the word applied to any Australian without English heritage or surname, even those born in Aus. with Aus. accents, particularly if they had darker features.