Flip Flops

#8, yes, zori is either from the Japanese occupation (before the Americans got most or all of Micronesia after WW20 or from the Japanese that live there now. My brother's landlord was Japanese, so maybe that's where he got it. I understood that everyone called them that there, but it could be that it was just the Japanese.

Thanks for the answers to my post. You have educated me!

I went to high school in Oxnard, CA which at that time was the American city with the highest percentage of Japanese Americans. Our family doctor was a Japanese American, as was the mayor of the city. I think Oxnard was also the site of the concentration camp for Japanese Americans during WW2. Anyway, for whatever reason, everybody in Oxnard called flip flops zorries.

Sorry to thread-jack. This is in response to #13 comment about "the concentration camp for Japanese Americans" based in Oxnard. Oxnard was never a site for Japanese concentration camps. Oxnard sits right on the coast and the last thing the US govt wanted at that time was any Japanese living on the coast. In fact there were 11 camps throughout the US in the following states inland California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arkansas. Now back to thongs/flip-flops/zories....

I disagree that thongs is strictly Australian English. I grew up on the beach in Santa Cruz, California, and that's the term we used. I never heard the term flip flops until I moved to Southern California.

Another Californian who grew up calling them "thongs." It really was only when thong underwear became popular that a version of Gresham's law took over & the shoes became "flip flops." I also heard "zoris" occasionally.

#9, you can indeed get tripped up by unexpected forbidden words. I had a problem quoting Chaucer a while back.

"Thongs" was common in NY in the 70s, if I recall correctly. I also seem to recall their being called "shower clogs". Wikipedia says that the US Army calls them "shower shoes" but doesn't mention clogs.

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<hr>you can indeed get tripped up by unexpected forbidden words.<hr></blockquote>

tripped up...heh...heh

I don't think Chaucer ever wore jandals though.

Another ex-Cali here who thinks they're thongs... (and much more comfortable than any current manifestation of such). As to the derogatory nature, I couldn't speak to that.

60s childhood in west Texas, we called them flip flops.

Thongs in Australia. Jandals in NZ.