"Blighty" meaning in English

See Blighty in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

IPA: /ˈblaɪti/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Blighty.wav
enPR: blī'tē Rhymes: -aɪti Etymology: Corruption of the Hindustani विलायती (vilāytī) / وِلائتی (vilā'iyatī, “foreign”), which is related to Arabic ولاية (wilāyah, “state, province”), whence also, through Turkish, vilayet. Sir Henry Yule and Arthur C. Burnell explained in their Anglo-Indian dictionary, Hobson-Jobson, published in 1886, that the word was used in the names of several kinds of exotic foreign things, especially those that the British had brought into the country, such as the tomato, विलायती बैंगन (vilāytī baiṅgan, literally “foreign aubergine”), and especially to soda water, which was commonly called विलायती पानी (vilāytī pānī, literally “foreign water”). Blighty was the inevitable British soldier’s corruption of it. But it only came into common use as a term for Britain at the beginning of the First World War in France about 1915. It turns up in popular songs "There’s a ship that’s bound for Blighty", "We wish we were in Blighty", and "Take me back to dear old Blighty, put me on the train for London town", and in Wilfred Owen's poems, as well as many other places. The sense of a minor wound comes from attributive use of the noun, as in “a Blighty wound,” “a Blighty one,” 1916. In modern Australian usage, Old has been added, as in Old Country and Old Dart, as a sentimental reference to Britain. Etymology templates: {{der|en|inc-hnd}} Hindustani Head templates: {{en-proper noun}} Blighty
  1. (military slang) Great Britain, Britain, or England, especially as viewed from abroad. Tags: slang Categories (place): England, United Kingdom Derived forms: Old Blighty, Blighty bag, Blighty one, Blighty wound
    Sense id: en-Blighty-en-name-Ak6w209H Disambiguation of England: 87 13 Disambiguation of United Kingdom: 85 15 Topics: government, military, politics, war

Noun

IPA: /ˈblaɪti/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Blighty.wav Forms: Blighties [plural]
enPR: blī'tē Rhymes: -aɪti Etymology: Corruption of the Hindustani विलायती (vilāytī) / وِلائتی (vilā'iyatī, “foreign”), which is related to Arabic ولاية (wilāyah, “state, province”), whence also, through Turkish, vilayet. Sir Henry Yule and Arthur C. Burnell explained in their Anglo-Indian dictionary, Hobson-Jobson, published in 1886, that the word was used in the names of several kinds of exotic foreign things, especially those that the British had brought into the country, such as the tomato, विलायती बैंगन (vilāytī baiṅgan, literally “foreign aubergine”), and especially to soda water, which was commonly called विलायती पानी (vilāytī pānī, literally “foreign water”). Blighty was the inevitable British soldier’s corruption of it. But it only came into common use as a term for Britain at the beginning of the First World War in France about 1915. It turns up in popular songs "There’s a ship that’s bound for Blighty", "We wish we were in Blighty", and "Take me back to dear old Blighty, put me on the train for London town", and in Wilfred Owen's poems, as well as many other places. The sense of a minor wound comes from attributive use of the noun, as in “a Blighty wound,” “a Blighty one,” 1916. In modern Australian usage, Old has been added, as in Old Country and Old Dart, as a sentimental reference to Britain. Etymology templates: {{der|en|inc-hnd}} Hindustani Head templates: {{en-noun}} Blighty (plural Blighties)
  1. (military slang) Synonym of Blighty one Tags: slang Categories (place): Country nicknames Synonyms: Blighty one [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-Blighty-en-noun-geiVV6nF Disambiguation of Country nicknames: 37 63 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 9 91 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 26 74 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 19 81 Topics: government, military, politics, war

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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Download raw JSONL data for Blighty meaning in English (7.0kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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