[ddots-l] Re: OT New computer
- From: "George Bell" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:33:46 -0000
I think this one just gets in under the topic wire since the
answer includes the names of one or two songs referring to
Blighty. (See below)
George.
[Q] From Sally Marden: "Thank you for a fabulous site! I
stumbled on it while looking for the derivation of Old Dart,
since I am a Brit living in Australia and had no idea why
the locals referred to England so. However, since finding
that, I've been asked by an Ocker where the term Old Blighty
comes from, and was appalled to realise I had no idea. Can
you help please?"
[A] It's a relic of British India. It comes from a Hindi
word bilayati, foreign, which is related to the Arabic
wilayat, a kingdom or province. 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 (bilayati baingan) and
especially to soda-water, which was commonly called bilayati
pani, or 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.
In modern Australian usage, Old has been added, as in Old
Country and Old Dart, as a sentimental reference to Britain.
-----Original Message-----
From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris
Smart
Sent: 14 March 2007 07:13
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: OT New computer
At 08:09 AM 3/12/2007, you wrote:
>Would dancing dotts be able to help a Blitey though?
Blitey? What's a blitey?
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.10/720 - Release
Date: 3/12/2007 7:19 PM
** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following
link:-
**
[mailto:ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe]
** If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
** ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
** and in the Subject line type
** unsubscribe
** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on
the
** immediately-following link:-
** [mailto:ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq]
** or send a message, to
** ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:-
** [mailto:ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe]
** If this link doesn't work then send a message to:
** ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
** and in the Subject line type
** unsubscribe
** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the
** immediately-following link:-
** [mailto:ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subjectúq]
** or send a message, to
** ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
Other related posts:
