Thanks for all the responses. I was hoping to come up with the term and impress the guy on the other board with my ‘worldly’ knowledge, but maybe he was just putting me on. I’ll let you guys know what his answer is if he comes out with it.
I’m thinking I’m getting set up for a joke, so I’m not going to push the issue with him.
Uh… probably not. But only because if she asked me, I’d be weighing up the odds of getting into her pants wary of the term because she is a stranger (most Aussies do know enough about US history to see that it could be prickly). However, often we don’t care, and if we deliberately used it to a Southerner, it’d be a friendly barb carefully aimed at somebody we know and like. For example, if there was a light-hearted thread about the South here on the Dope, I might use my nationality as a springboard for saying to the Southerners, “The trouble with you Yanks is…” That kinda thing. There’d be a smiley on the end of it though.
Ah, I see. Thank you.
There’s another subtlety to the use of the word “Yank” (Irish: poncán). It referred not to an actual American, but to an Irish person who had emigrated to the USA, lived there, and returned to Ireland. This is how I heard it used in my childhood.
Are any of them driven by Cockney natives? :eek: 
:dubious:
Regarding Seppo or Septic…
I defended the term a few years ago on another forum when someone posted saying their Australian friend had called them a Seppo, and when s/he asked someone else what it meant s/he was told (essentially) “OMG, you do not want to know! That person is not your friend! They called you a horrible, horrible, insulting, degrading name and you should be OUTRAGED and never speak to them again!”.
I said then that I’d never heard Seppo used as an insult. As far as I was concerned, it was cheeky and light-hearted. No one used it to liken someone to a septic tank or to insinuate anything about their contents. It was an “amusing” little piece of rhyming slang, but not intended as a secret insult.
When I mentioned this to my ex (he wasn’t my ex then), he told me I was wrong. As an Australian with an American accent, he’d heard the term many times over the years, and while some people did use it in the light-hearted manner that I’ve always associated with it, others wield it like a dagger and clearly mean it to insult.
I’d say that it’s very much something that depends on context. If your Aussie friend good-naturedly calls you a Seppo, you do not need to stalk out in disgust and never speak to him again. If it’s hurled at you in amongst a torrent of abuse, it’s possible that the speaker is not merely being cheeky and may actually think you are large container of shit.
YMMV.
Cockneys may be a dying breed, but the London cab is their final resting place.
sigh…I miss strewth and crikey
“Sir”
Stone the crows! You miss strewth and crikey do ya, cobber?