I know. There’s something sort of… doom-laden about it. I’ll probably get over this in about a decade. All in good time!
I prefer to use the term “up the bleedin’ spout” (from Rumpole of the Bailey).
Blame the Aussies!
Australians are allergic to using entire/actual words. Your name is John? Nope it’s Johno. You need an ambulance? Nope it’s an ambo. Time for your work break? Nope that would be smoko time? Preggers is just Aussie for a bun in the oven.
Just be glad Aussie opposite-name-syndrome hasn’t hit. You have red hair? They will call you Blue. You are a great big bloke? Your name is now Tiny.
Aussies are lovely people they just speak a different language. 
It’s as bad as telly for television and prezzy for present (as in gift). I hate both of those.
Until it developed limbs, I called the Butlerette, “The blob”
Mrs. Butler took a dim view on that.
See I use both (no I really don’t care that you hate it). I was always quite partial to Prego though. One of my friends used to say “Prego - it’s in there!” like the commercials. It seems fitting.
Now now now, get it right. Ambo refers to the person, not the vehicle. Other emergency workers are firies and coppers.
I’m pretty sure preggers is of Aussie origin, part of our obsession with diminutives. Other such delights from down here are premmie, innie/outie, sanger, chockers, chalkie, footie, u-ie, tantie, ciggie, boatie, sparkie, chippie, brekkie, garbo, rotto, freo, and many others too numerous to list here.
The vet who did Crickets surgery when she was a wee baby (her mom was a feral and somehow Cricket got out of the nest and got run over by a lawn mower at about 2 weeks old - her tail had to be amputated and there was a big chunk missing from her hip) referred to her as the “Crickers kidder cat”. It used to drive me crazy - but now I catch myself calling her Crickers.
[QUOTE=Rushgeekgirl]
Ooh also in the office where we used to work several women were pregnant and she blamed it on pregniscence in the air.
QUOTE]
It’s not pregniscence in the air, it’s legs.
I’ll see your horrible “preggers”, and I’ll raise you one “hubby”.
Fingers on a fucking chalk board, the both of them. Doesn’t anybody speak English anymore?? 
If a word can unite the English upper classes (glad to know there are still some left, incidentally) and Australia’s classless (ahem) society, then it’s got to have something going for it.
Some linguists refer to them as ‘friendly endings’
How has no one mentioned ‘Crimbo’ for Christmas yet ? Bleurch :rolleyes:
Dude, now you’re totally, like, reminding me of this guy.
…and only the Poms and the Aussies on here will know who I’m on about.
Tim Brooke-Taylor’s your dad, Wooders?
You have to go back earlier than the 70s. I saw the word in print in The Art of Coarse Sailing, c. 1963. (When the book was written, that is. I didn’t read it until nearer the other end of the decade.) Since the story was set in England, if the Aussies had coined the word it had already repatriated by then.
The British “-ers” suffix seems to have started with Upper Class usage;
(From this pdf file: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/063118855X/Hughes.pdf )
Warning: the above pdf includes information on mommets, flay-crows and gally-baggers. And yiff-yaffs.
Here, fuzzers, is a good reference on the “-ers” thing, as it relates to British usage:
From here: http://plateaupress.com.au/wfw/archive.htm#erswords
I absolutely despise “sammich”. I hate it with the fire from a thousand dogs. The fact that anybody on Earth that doesn’t have actual physical damage to the brain finds that using the word “sammich” isn’t vomit-inducing is a cosmic mystery I classify on the same level as the dark matter/energy conundrum.
Heh. My dad probably wouldn’t vote for the Tories. He’s more Bill Oddie than TBT.
But apparently TBT the person is far more left-wing than TBT.