pom-pom, noun

/ˈpɒmpɒm/
Origin:
Echoic; see quotation 1979.
The name given to the Maxim automatic quick-firing gun during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902. Also attributive, and figurative.
Note:
‘Pom-pom’ is now in extended use worldwide for other weapons.
1899 Daily News 6 Dec. 5Automatic guns, nicknamed pom-poms.
1899 Daily News 26 Dec. 2An automatic gun, which Tommy Atkins, with his aptitude for expressive phrases, promptly christened ‘Pom! Pom!’
[1900 J.B. Atkins Relief of Ladysmith 175A volley from the Vickers-Maxim, with the ‘pom-pom-pom’ voice, like the sound of a postman rapping on the door of an empty house.]
1900 Daily News 5 Mar. 2Near where the pom-pom gun was placed, is the over-flowing supply store.
1900 Daily News 25 June 3We secured a Hotchkiss gun, 500 rounds of pom-pom ammunition.
1901 E. Wallace Unofficial Despatches 74They are here in Matjesfontein, with their two spare horses and their Cape carts, with their native scouts and pom-poms.
1902 Westminster Gaz. (U.K.) 27 Jan. 1The fact..has never influenced him..towards a modification of his verbal pom-poms.
1903 J.D. Kestell Through Shot & Flame 59Our Maxim Nordenfelts were the especial aversion of the British soldiers. We heard from some of them that were taken prisoners at Spion Kop that ‘Hell clock’ was the name that they gave our Pom-pom.
1937 R. Kipling Something of Myself 160Then pom-poms opened...On soft ground they merely thudded. On rock-face the shell breaks up and yowls like a cat...The pom-poms opened again at a bare rock-reef that gave the shells full value.
1943 F.H. Rose Kruger’s Wagon 18There were, in addition to Long Tom, only two Krup guns,..two pompoms and a few small guns here and there.
1957 D. Grinnell-Milne Baden-Powell at Mafeking 70His miserable antiques the muzzle-loading 7-pounders were completely outranged by the enemy’s high-velocity Krupp guns and even by the Vickers-Maxim ‘pom-pom’.
1979 F. Myatt 19th C. Firearms 194Perhaps one of the oddest aspects of the South African War was the employment by the Boers of a number of guns made by Maxim-Nordenfelt. These were automatic guns of 1,48 in (37 mm) calibre, firing an explosive shell of about 1 lb (.373 kg) weight, supplied to the Boers by the French. The guns were heartily disliked by the British who usually referred to them as ‘pom-poms’, a name probably first applied by the local natives as a result of their very characteristic sound in action.
The name given to the Maxim automatic quick-firing gun during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902. Also attributive, and figurative.
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18991979

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figurative or allusive
pomp, verbv.Pondo, nounn.
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