Why Australia called as 'OZ'?

Question

Why Australia called as 'OZ'?

Answer 1

The word Australia when referred to informally with its first three letters becomes Aus. When Aus or Aussie, the short form for an Australian, is pronounced for fun with a hissing sound at the end, it sounds as though the word being pronounced has the spelling Oz.

Hence Australia in informal language is referred to as Oz. The noun Oz is also used to refer to an unreal, magical place, and this usage had its origins in the fantasy novel The wonderful world of Oz written in 1900 by L Frank Baum

Answer 2

OUTER ZONE

Answer 3

Australian slang

Australia is pronounced Ozstralia so Oz or Ozzie for short, also Aussie is short for Australia you can have it either way.

The land of Oz.

We like to shorten our words

Answer 4

even though we got some 20 answers here, OZ is basically just a short-form abbreviation, possibly taken from the word "Auzzie."  

Answer 5

i think it came from "Aussies" .... pronounced in short "OZ"

Answer 6

Actuallly, people use short form of australia as 'aussie'. some make it more short as oze or oz. nothing particular.As indians are sometimes called as indies.

Answer 7

It was a typo, which got processed through the cumbersome and uncaring bureaucratic chain, and now has to gain social acceptance through repeated use. We are sorry. And you are free to revert back to use the full word 'A-U-S-T-R-A-L-I-A' in all your communication. Only then will you understand the logic behind shortening the name for everyday use.  

Answer 8

Oz-tralia.

Answer 9

because australians abbreviate almost everything, unless the name has only one syllable, in which case we will add one and lengthen it, i.e. uluru or ayres rock is known as the rock, john will be called johnno

also because australians tend to blur the sounds in their words, so australia is pronounced oztraya

the wizard of oz may also have been influential

my theory is that this happens because it gets so bloody hot here that we can't be bothered with the effort to talk properly

Answer 10

OZTRALIA

I personally have no idea who decided to call Australia 'oz'.

I am an Australian and all of a sudden they started to call Australia 'oz'!  It's kind of weird.

But still, it's an abbreviation, a nickname, a pal-position (whatever that is!) whatever you li ke to call it, but the point is it's Australia - O-ss-tray-lee-a - Oz-tralia.

You get the idea.

Answer 11

India - Indians

Australai - Aussies - OZ's

Answer 12

I thought the wizard stayed there.sorry had to be done.

Answer 13

oztralia

Answer 14

it is so just because of ozone layer .the depletion of ozone layer is equivalent in size that of australia

Answer 15

i think it is just an abbreviated version of australia: australia, aus, oz.

us aussies tend to abbreviate words a lot, and its convenient to be able to use a one syllable word instead of 4.

Answer 16

Oz" is another way of spelling "Aus", which is an abbreviation of "Australia", so "Oz" means "Australia".  

Answer 17

OZ = Aus = Aussie = Australia :)