BUY THE ORIGIN OF NAMES, WORDS AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN: VOLUME II Search “word origins book” into Amazon to click on it there to help more people discover the book. Alternatively click on one of these links below or check wherever books are purchased in your part of the world! Mango- bit.ly/wordoriginsbook Barnes and noble- bit.ly/WordoriginsBook Amazon- bit.ly/WordOriginsBook Chapters indigo- bit.ly/WordOriginsbook Indiebound- bit.ly/wordOriginsBook Bookdepository: bit.ly/wordOriginsbook Booktopia: bit.ly/Wordoriginsbook The Origin of Names, Words and Everything In Between: Volume II is the much anticipated follow up book to the best selling original. Like the first volume this book is full of word origins, name meaning, historical fun facts, and geography trivia. All the information in this book is presented in a fun, light, easy to read and easy to understand manner, so everyone can enjoy and learn!
Any of the British are a blight but only the English are limey! Scot, welsh & northern Irish are all blights! It seems like you looked to much into the Indian sub continent with vilayati & over thought it. Blighty comes from blight as all colonies & the globe referred to brits in this manner because we where a blight on the world. Much like how Genghis Khan Mongolia was referred to as the horde. It is an Insult the British adopted much like how the English adopted the phrase limey from the yanks.
Too far fetched, the words aren't even similar. Add to that the word blight actually has meaning. It's more likely this is soldier sarcasm that was hidden by saying it was hindi
Interesting. I always thought Blighty was a reference to the grim and polluted industrial parts of the UK, like how London used to be called "The Smoke."
@@lindsayheyes925 When I was last in Edinburgh, 1990s, parts of it smelt of warm Weetabix, I believe it was a brewery causing the smell. Took a while to get used to that smell early morning when you'd been on the razzle the night before 🤮
@@fraggit There was a glue factory in Gloucester that earned a mention in one of Graham Greene's novels. The hero's flatmate was absent because he had been sent to investigate its stench. I remember it well.
Take me back to dear old Blighty, Put me on the train to London town Take me over there Drop me anywhere Birmingham, Leeds or Manchester Well I don’t care I would like to see my sweetheart Snuggling up again we soon shall be Well, i-tee-idulty-ighty Carry me back to Blighty Blighty is the place to be! From memory, my grandad (a WW1 veteran) was still singing this in the 1970s :-)
Yes, I associate this with The Queen is dead from The Smiths, the opening was taken from a film called the L shaped room, the lyrics in the film were different from the original WWI song, it changed from Manchester to Birmingham in the film... Quite strange seeing as The Smiths were a Mancunian band.
Congrats on releasing volume 2 :) Also odd that Blighty is a word equating to a wholesome homesick feeling, when Blight is something equating to the sickness of a plant.
It's actually not that surprising that the Shire is located in New Zealand. During the colonial period, the British government and local authorities were determined to make New Zealand into an antipodean England. New Zealand in the late 19th and early 20th century was often described as more English than England. This was because, unlike Australia, there was a concerted effort to only let in the 'right' settlers, mainly the English and Scottish. It was also more expensive to emigrate to than Australia because of its greater distance from the Motherland. There were also no penal colonies in New Zealand and its climate was more similar to the UK. This led to a perception of New Zealand being a place for more genteel settlers to move to. Of course, like many things, reality didn't line up with this perception but it didn't stop the marketing from playing it up as a little England. I mean, my Mum says it was common when she was growing up in the 60s and 70s to call England home. It wasn't really until after that point that New Zealand began to develop its own identity.
The Shire is where it's always been.... in the rural shires of England. The film set is located in Jackson's home country, suitably near the special effects of Weta and the spectacular scenery used to portray the scenes of wider Middle Earth. I can think of many locations in England which would look more like Tolkien's description of the Shire than that used in the film. For example, most hobbits didn't live in holes, only the poorest and richest (like Bilbo). Thatched cottage (single storey) style, above-ground houses were the most common (like a typical English village). Also... Where were the hedgerows?
@@dstinnettmusic Yes he did. "James" mentioned Shires and "adventus" rightly explained why he thought they used NZ. Who are you? The guardian of the comments or something
I always understood that Blighty was purloined from the Indian language by British soldiers serving in India. It became very popular during World War 1, when soldiers on the Western Front used to talk about "getting back to Blighty"
I still use Blighty in a tongue in cheek sort of way. I have friends who live or work all over the world. When I ask them when they're coming back home. I say when are you back in Blighty? They all understand. I doubt millennials would though 🙄😂
Indeed and plenty of us use England simply because it is our country and the overwhelming majority of people in these United Kingdom islands live in England 🏴
@@DaveSCameron In my experience ,the English are the only people of Britain who commonly refer to Britain as 'England'.If the Northern Irish,Scots or Welsh refer to England - it means literally that.
@@cymro6537 again it's because we are the overwhelming nation in this United Kingdom, its not anything more than identity, one can be pro English and not anti anything else I hope you understand. 🙏
@@DaveSCameron I know you're not anti anything else ; I just find it interesting that the English have only fairly recently rediscovered who they are : The Union banner was considered the banner of England - check out footage of England's victory over West Germany at the world cup of '66 - a sea of Union Jacks - but not one St George's flag.The (much older) St George's flag wasn't rediscovered until the Euros of '96 - and this maybe as a reaction to Scotland becoming more Nationalistic ? I like seeing the St George's flag whenever I hop over the border and visit England - my only gripe about the union flag is that my own country isn't represented on it(!) Regards from Wales 🏴👍
I had no idea it was considered a positive term. As an Australian I thought it was a tongue in cheek way off expressing being home sick but acknowledging it was industrial blight and bad wether they where missing
In my experience the term 'blighty' is only really used by ex Pats, members of the armed forces and anyone else required to live outside Britain (more probably England) No-one goes on hols to tenerife and talks about getting 'back to blighty' except ironically.
Richard Jones - especially those who served in India usually retired Officers. Quite a few stayed on after partition and retired there. There are English speaking ex pats who owned tea plantations. They still live there and have never set foot in Britain their entire lives. The BBC did a documentary about them entitled 'Staying On'.
The summer of 1845 was mild but very wet in Britain. It was almost the perfect weather conditions for the blight to spread. The blight is still with us and is called ‘Phytophthora Infestans’ - an air carried fungus. out of starvation many people of britain and ireland left in droves to the americas. they called england ''old blighty'' land of the potato blight
You missed a bit about blighty that used used by soldiers as well. When a British soldier was wounded badly he would say I got me a blighty one, meaning shipped back home to Britain.
@@DaveSCameron en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule in India alone, Not to mention the Irish potato famine. Learn all history the good and the bad
@@jacob8565 Thanks for the Wiki link and I hope you can travel, mix and discover what our world is all about in your life and resist arrogant Internet comments, best wishes *
This origin has a similar entomology as the American term Yankee in that it came from another language and was originally meant to be derogatory but ultimately became embraced by those it was meant to deride. Congrats on book #2.
Villayat is the Arabic word for Guardian. Indo Pak people still use it to denote Britain. Valayt ( Punjabi pronunciation) . The famous Pakistani folk singer refers to this word in a love song to a British Pakistani girl . " Bhaven Vasse Toon Valayt ... Tenoon Layyke ni Jaana Mianwali " . Meaning : Even though you live in Valayt ( UK ) .. I will (forcibly) take you to Mianwali . The title of the song is called " Kameez Teri Kali .. Ni Sohna Phullan Vaali " Trans: Your dress is black .. with beautiful flowers .
I've always thought 'blighter' was a posh word for 'd**khead'! Which means it could have come from the same Hindi word, because a lot of languages have words that mean both 'foreigner' and also 'suspicious person'.
As in blight, disease carrier. Yeah derogatory but could be used as banter. To get a Blighty is to be injured enough to get you shipped home to Blighty, used from WW1 onwards
To be fair hardly anyone really uses this word, never used it myself as an English person or heard an English friend say it. It sounds a bit twee and amusing and old-fashioned to me.
Well, I use it sporadicly in my communications, with my brothers in particular, mostly, I must say, in my written words, rather than vocally. But still use it vocally now and again.
No. Blighty is purely an English nickname for the UK, vaguely including the rest of the UK, but as your examples show, it's all about homesick English soldiers. It was ironic that a word for foreigner becomes a fond pet name for an idylic vision of home. Find examples of Scots or the Welsh using this term of endearment. Go on. I dare you!
Also confusing is that the component parts are referred to as countries (and sometimes as nations which in the USA is used interchangeably with country).
Vilajet - Ultimately from Ottoman Turkish ولایت (vilâyet), from Arabic وِلَايَة (wilāya, “province”). Perhaps mediated via another European language.
Britain also used to be referred to as England mainly due to the fact that most ships used to dock there rather than in Scotland or Wales. This was perfectly normal until after WW2. This was particularly the case when Brits not from England were overseas.
I thought the people of The Isle of Man, viewed themselves as being a people, once seperate of the larger United Kingdom. I thought the people from The isle of Man still have strong indepent streak, and sense of a different culture.
Nice job. I've only ever heard Blighty used in the context of being overseas, and it is both ironic and nostalgic at the same time - as in "my blighted homeland". It's especially popular in Australia in that ironic way, reflecting the slightly awkward relationship with a country that once transported its prisoners there. The word is thus very different from the German "Deutsche Heimat" (where one might expect "Gemütlichheit"). Since you brought it up, "Merrie England" doesn't mean happy or jolly England. Merrie meant beautiful. My mother lived at Merivale (beautiful broad valley), and there is Meriden (beautiful woodland), and numerous other examples.
_Deutsche Heimat_ is very political these days, it's a bit like hanging the English flag out of your window when there isn't a football game happening. Or even when there is, IDK.
@@TheDotBot So too - I have learned from other comments here - is Blighty, apparently. I am reminded of sitting at a street restaurant in Singapore not long after the Vietnam War ended. An American was seated at another table. As soon as it was realised that I was English, I was served promptly and the service was characteristically friendly, although I spoke no Chinese, and the waiters very little English. The unfortunate American was not served at all. He sat there alone, and eventually left, hungry. I learned something that evening: People can hold a grudge for things in whuch you played no part - but in time, they forgive and forget... unless you are American.
@@lindsayheyes925 Same for Germans. I'm originally English but naturalised German. On holidays with friends (from Germany) in the Netherlands, it was my turn to get the beer in so off I went to the shop as they were closing. They said "No we're closed" in German. Me: "When do you open again?" in English to try my luck anyway, they paused a second, asked me where I was from, I said England and the county I grew up in, and they let my buy my beer.
In the mid '70s I saw a Dutch soldier pull a knife on a.German soldier in a French bar after the German accidentally nudged him, spilling a bit of his drink. Fortunately his comrades jumped on him and frog-marched him outside. They were far too young to have known the war. The Germans bought the Dutch lads a round, the two men shook hands, and they all spent the rest of the evening getting legless together... so drunk that the lad who'd pulled the knife accidentally walked straight through a closed glass door later - without getting a mark on him. Thus was World War III was averted, Gott sei dank.
To us in India, Blighty is the place where this specific set of foreigners who we encountered a lot with called it their home. Blighty implied Britain and Ireland. Blighty in our conversations today mean the culture and place of British or Anglo-Celtic Isles.
Take me back to dear old Blighty! Put me on the train for London town Take me over there Drop me anywhere Liverpool, Leeds, or Birmingham, well, I don't care! I should love to see my best girl Cuddling up again we soon should be (Whoa!) Tiddley-iddley-ighty Hurry me back to Blighty Blighty is the place for me!
On a stricter note, vilayet simply means settlement or district. I'm guessing the reason why Europe was labelled as "Vilayet" is because Ottoman regions were given the same name and Indians would gain knowledge about Europe by trading with the Ottomans, thus any European country would be called "firangi vilayet" to the point that simply vilayet was used.
I dont think "blighty" as a particularly fond term. at least not down in Australia. down here, its a very derogative term. a 'blight' is a generic term for a fungal or bacterial infestation. root blight or leaf blight. something nasty has infected my crop, that's a 'blight'. Dont know what it is yet, but we'll blame the British for it. which, historically, is pretty fair. the Bloody Blightys.
The British have an absolute pathology about refusing to use foreign words with authentic pronunciations. "Mumbai" becomes "Bombay?" "Vilyati" becomes "Blighty?" I swear, it is somehow in the British mindset to "improve" on other people's words because, being British, they must know better how to speak Urdu or Swahili than the natives.
This is nonsense. The Hobbit trilogy was filmed entirely in NZ and that's why the set was created there because location was cheaper. In fact most complex film sets are famously still created in British studios.
Don't forget, "vilayati" may not have been pronounced in Hindi as "vil-a-ya-ti", it may have been pronounced "bly-tee" (by the "Indians"). So the English term may have copied the Hindi term PHONETICALLY, precisely. The spelling therefore coming from the hindi word phonetically, written in the Latin alphabet following English grammatical generic rules. So the change from "vilayati" to "Blighty" may not have been quite so random and "blase" as you make out. A small point, but worth making.
That's right, it was pronounced with a B by some sections of native speakers-by the way, it's from Urdu (and Persian), not Hindi. Bilāyatī is a regional variant in Urdu of the more standard vilāyatī, and it's apparently this variant that Blighty comes from. It's been spelled and pronounced a variety of ways over the years, including belattee, belaitee, belati and balaití.
I'd heard the term in a Monty Python skit and wasn't sure I was hearing it correctly ("Blighty"? What the hell could that mean?) From context, I figured it was an expression for "home" but I had no idea... Guess I'm going to have to get the book(s) now...
I always thought it was an affectional term for a British person . "How you doing there , me old blighty?" Lol... understanding now why the term was used if it was a name for Britain itself..
But in saying that, I do recall a few old Ealing films in black and white using stars like Alec Guinness and John mills etc being in the army and stating a line when overseas with letter writing which would include .".tell me In your next letter how our dear blighty is .." But it's true it hardly gets used these days .. we swap and change words too fast for us to even remember some that was most common just a generation ago ..! Lol
Never heard of it except as a nick name for my great aunt because her names Enid and a famouse Enid Blyton then blyty. my family's good at giving members nick names for weird and wacky reasons
You tell us that you researched this video. In which case you will know that the "United Kingdom" refers to England, Scotland and Wales, whereas "Great Britain" refers to "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" !
@@zulthyr1852 that was my logic I always thought Gibraltar was just more important than it is so it gets referred to like that sometimes as a representative of England??
@@aaronstanley6914 huh. I could have sworn he made a video talking about how lots of British slang including Blighty came from India. Must be mis remembering
@@thecommentguy8366 no your probably right it's just that sometimes he recycles facts (tho he normally would link back to the video he to that Trivia from)
Hmm. Here's what I have assumed until this video: Britain throws its shadow over much of the world through colonization, spreading like a blight. Those in foreign lands ruled by Britain at some point call it Old Blighty, in a derogatory manor. Then with a sense of irony, the British themselves start using Blighty in a wistful way, perhaps thinking back to those colonizer days like, "remember when we ruled much of the world? We had big balls back in those days!" Eventually, the ironic part of it is lost, and it's just Old Blighty, with all of the dark origins of it removed.
To quote the Manic Street Preachers on dear old Arse Ache, a "Spiteful twisted unforgiven, sad and inverted and stunted, retarded ugly balding old man".
Brexit was simply taking back control of your own country. The EU is not a country or a state but it controls a vast majority of European countries. The more you study the EU, the more strange it appears.
@@QPRTokyo And putting (further) control into the hands of Tory elites, while purging any Tory MP who was judged to be insufficiently enthusiastic about Brexit. The UK had the best of all of possible worlds - access to the European market, while keeping its own currency. Brexit was built on a fantasy, and now it's a shitshow.
And here I thought it was a corruption of the word blight meaning a pestilence of some variety, which kind of fits when you look at the Empire's growth around the planet, so I always assumed a hint of sarcasm when uttering "old Blighty"
Wales and a Welsh dynasty invaded and conquered England at the battle of Bosworth Field, and installed a Welsh king (Henry Tudor). After which the Welsh Tudors, reinvented and recreated (there was nothing left of England) England and later merged the two nations, in law. Henry the Eigth wrote an act of parliament, and the two became one. He called it England (because the tudors liked sending English people over to fight the French) , but the two nations are effectively Wales, as England was completely conquered and was effecticely Wales' biatch.
The word/name that drives me mad is Lieutenant. Why the hell do the British say “Leftenant”? There’s no “F” in Lieutenant so why pronounce one? Does anyone know? 😱🤬
Another mispronunciation from India is kedgeree, it derived from a rice and vegetable dish called something like kich kerry. I don't know where the smoked fish and eggs come from, but I like to imagen a British officers demanding kippers and boiled eggs for breakfast
I don't think you'd normally hear in Britain outside the context of WWI, but British "expats" still use it a lot as in "So when are you going back to Blighty then?"
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The Origin of Names, Words and Everything In Between: Volume II is the much anticipated follow up book to the best selling original. Like the first volume this book is full of word origins, name meaning, historical fun facts, and geography trivia. All the information in this book is presented in a fun, light, easy to read and easy to understand manner, so everyone can enjoy and learn!
Would be nice to know how to get a signed copy!
Hello from India,
Any of the British are a blight but only the English are limey!
Scot, welsh & northern Irish are all blights!
It seems like you looked to much into the Indian sub continent with vilayati & over thought it.
Blighty comes from blight as all colonies & the globe referred to brits in this manner because we where a blight on the world. Much like how Genghis Khan Mongolia was referred to as the horde. It is an Insult the British adopted much like how the English adopted the phrase limey from the yanks.
your video is (cobblers) & I doubt you can tell me where that means or what it is from.
Too far fetched, the words aren't even similar. Add to that the word blight actually has meaning. It's more likely this is soldier sarcasm that was hidden by saying it was hindi
Interesting. I always thought Blighty was a reference to the grim and polluted industrial parts of the UK, like how London used to be called "The Smoke."
Edinburgh was "Auld Reekie" for the same reason.
@@lindsayheyes925 When I was last in Edinburgh, 1990s, parts of it smelt of warm Weetabix, I believe it was a brewery causing the smell. Took a while to get used to that smell early morning when you'd been on the razzle the night before 🤮
@@fraggit There was a glue factory in Gloucester that earned a mention in one of Graham Greene's novels. The hero's flatmate was absent because he had been sent to investigate its stench. I remember it well.
@@lindsayheyes925 We all knew what they melted down for the glue 🤢 Now that's a smell I'm glad I've never smelt.
That's just industrialist that is!
Take me back to dear old Blighty,
Put me on the train to London town
Take me over there
Drop me anywhere
Birmingham, Leeds or Manchester
Well I don’t care
I would like to see my sweetheart
Snuggling up again we soon shall be
Well, i-tee-idulty-ighty
Carry me back to Blighty
Blighty is the place to be!
From memory, my grandad (a WW1 veteran) was still singing this in the 1970s :-)
I have even a better one:
ruclips.net/video/kCEUZ4rFiac/видео.html
I associate that song with "The Queen Is Dead" by The Smiths
Yes, I associate this with The Queen is dead from The Smiths, the opening was taken from a film called the L shaped room, the lyrics in the film were different from the original WWI song, it changed from Manchester to Birmingham in the film... Quite strange seeing as The Smiths were a Mancunian band.
Imagine having to ride on a train to any of these places🤢
Congrats on releasing volume 2 :) Also odd that Blighty is a word equating to a wholesome homesick feeling, when Blight is something equating to the sickness of a plant.
It's actually not that surprising that the Shire is located in New Zealand. During the colonial period, the British government and local authorities were determined to make New Zealand into an antipodean England. New Zealand in the late 19th and early 20th century was often described as more English than England. This was because, unlike Australia, there was a concerted effort to only let in the 'right' settlers, mainly the English and Scottish. It was also more expensive to emigrate to than Australia because of its greater distance from the Motherland. There were also no penal colonies in New Zealand and its climate was more similar to the UK. This led to a perception of New Zealand being a place for more genteel settlers to move to. Of course, like many things, reality didn't line up with this perception but it didn't stop the marketing from playing it up as a little England. I mean, my Mum says it was common when she was growing up in the 60s and 70s to call England home. It wasn't really until after that point that New Zealand began to develop its own identity.
The Shire is where it's always been.... in the rural shires of England. The film set is located in Jackson's home country, suitably near the special effects of Weta and the spectacular scenery used to portray the scenes of wider Middle Earth. I can think of many locations in England which would look more like Tolkien's description of the Shire than that used in the film.
For example, most hobbits didn't live in holes, only the poorest and richest (like Bilbo). Thatched cottage (single storey) style, above-ground houses were the most common (like a typical English village). Also... Where were the hedgerows?
@@adventussaxonum448 you…didn’t respond to a single thing they said
@@dstinnettmusic Yes he did. "James" mentioned Shires and "adventus" rightly explained why he thought they used NZ. Who are you? The guardian of the comments or something
Lol further away from OZ
I always understood that Blighty was purloined from the Indian language by British soldiers serving in India. It became very popular during World War 1, when soldiers on the Western Front used to talk about "getting back to Blighty"
Like so very many other words taken and used by the British/Indian Army.
In WWI an injury bad enough to involve repatriation to the UK was called 'A blighty one'. Many texts refer to this usage.
I still use Blighty in a tongue in cheek sort of way. I have friends who live or work all over the world. When I ask them when they're coming back home. I say when are you back in Blighty? They all understand. I doubt millennials would though 🙄😂
A LOT of people I know still use GB and England interchangeably in the same way they interchanged Russia and USSR. :)
That bothers me, even though I'm only half-Scot. I'd hate to be lumped in with the English.
Indeed and plenty of us use England simply because it is our country and the overwhelming majority of people in these United Kingdom islands live in England 🏴
@@DaveSCameron In my experience ,the English are the only people of Britain who commonly refer to Britain as 'England'.If the Northern Irish,Scots or Welsh refer to England - it means literally that.
@@cymro6537 again it's because we are the overwhelming nation in this United Kingdom, its not anything more than identity, one can be pro English and not anti anything else I hope you understand. 🙏
@@DaveSCameron I know you're not anti anything else ; I just find it interesting that the English have only fairly recently rediscovered who they are : The Union banner was considered the banner of England - check out footage of England's victory over West Germany at the world cup of '66 - a sea of Union Jacks - but not one St George's flag.The (much older) St George's flag wasn't rediscovered until the Euros of '96 - and this maybe as a reaction to Scotland becoming more Nationalistic ?
I like seeing the St George's flag whenever I hop over the border and visit England - my only gripe about the union flag is that my own country isn't represented on it(!)
Regards from Wales 🏴👍
I have travelled and lived . There is no place on this Earth that I’d rather be than here, in the island of my ancestors .Blighty 🏴🏴❤️🌤
What about the English word "blight", which refers to diseases of the skin in animals and eventually plants?
I had no idea it was considered a positive term. As an Australian I thought it was a tongue in cheek way off expressing being home sick but acknowledging it was industrial blight and bad wether they where missing
Nah I think nowadays its just an affectionate term
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SECOND BOOK!! I am so excited to read it!! I can only imagine the amount of work you put into it, congratulations!!
In my experience the term 'blighty' is only really used by ex Pats, members of the armed forces and anyone else required to live outside Britain (more probably England) No-one goes on hols to tenerife and talks about getting 'back to blighty' except ironically.
Richard Jones - especially those who served in India usually retired Officers. Quite a few stayed on after partition and retired there. There are English speaking ex pats who owned tea plantations. They still live there and have never set foot in Britain their entire lives. The BBC did a documentary about them entitled 'Staying On'.
@@joedee1863 When I was at school in the 80s I had a few friends who were British descent, but were born in India.
As an English person, I have never even heard it called this. This video confuses me.
I spent 22 years in the British Army and lived all over the world. All of us, English, Welsh and Scottish military personnel called home blighty,
The summer of 1845 was mild but very wet in Britain. It was almost the perfect weather conditions for the blight to spread. The blight is still with us and is called ‘Phytophthora Infestans’ - an air carried fungus. out of starvation many people of britain and ireland left in droves to the americas. they called england ''old blighty'' land of the potato blight
No, not correct. The real explanation is given here.
You missed a bit about blighty that used used by soldiers as well. When a British soldier was wounded badly he would say I got me a blighty one, meaning shipped back home to Britain.
So it isn't because Britain brings blight wherever they go
Funny, from a person using a system invented by the English along with most other comforts and progress...
@@DaveSCameron en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule in India alone, Not to mention the Irish potato famine. Learn all history the good and the bad
@@jacob8565 Thanks for the Wiki link and I hope you can travel, mix and discover what our world is all about in your life and resist arrogant Internet comments, best wishes *
I would prefer the word "enlightenment", but none of us are perfect.
This origin has a similar entomology as the American term Yankee in that it came from another language and was originally meant to be derogatory but ultimately became embraced by those it was meant to deride. Congrats on book #2.
‘Etymology’ must be the most ironic word to commonly confuse with another
Villayat is the Arabic word for Guardian. Indo Pak people still use it to denote Britain. Valayt ( Punjabi pronunciation) . The famous Pakistani folk singer refers to this word in a love song to a British Pakistani girl . " Bhaven Vasse Toon Valayt ... Tenoon Layyke ni Jaana Mianwali " . Meaning : Even though you live in Valayt ( UK ) .. I will (forcibly) take you to Mianwali . The title of the song is called " Kameez Teri Kali .. Ni Sohna Phullan Vaali " Trans: Your dress is black .. with beautiful flowers .
I'm from Texas, and I have never heard Blighty in my life.
I’m from Indiana and I’ve only ever heard it in WWI movies and books.
I'm not surprised, since its only commonly heard in blighty itself
I use it quite often but I am English.
"...The armies of the triple entente mighty, Russia, France, and this b**ch
*Blighty* ..."
Could this be related to the term 'blighter' in the sense of a fellow or comrade?
I've always thought 'blighter' was a posh word for 'd**khead'!
Which means it could have come from the same Hindi word, because a lot of languages have words that mean both 'foreigner' and also 'suspicious person'.
As in blight, disease carrier. Yeah derogatory but could be used as banter.
To get a Blighty is to be injured enough to get you shipped home to Blighty, used from WW1 onwards
To be fair hardly anyone really uses this word, never used it myself as an English person or heard an English friend say it. It sounds a bit twee and amusing and old-fashioned to me.
I wonder how old you are? I'm in my 50s, born in London and my family and friends always called it "Blighty" amongst other names 😉
Well, I use it sporadicly in my communications, with my brothers in particular, mostly, I must say, in my written words, rather than vocally. But still use it vocally now and again.
No.
Blighty is purely an English nickname for the UK, vaguely including the rest of the UK, but as your examples show, it's all about homesick English soldiers. It was ironic that a word for foreigner becomes a fond pet name for an idylic vision of home.
Find examples of Scots or the Welsh using this term of endearment. Go on. I dare you!
Also confusing is that the component parts are referred to as countries (and sometimes as nations which in the USA is used interchangeably with country).
I thought the B rather than V was from it being heard in Bangla which often uses B where hindi would use V.
Talks about India
Me: oh wow, so that word has something to do with us?
"VILAYATI"
Me: HOW the F@#$ did I miss that
I miss stuff like that all the time. A friend of mine didn't know if noon was midday or midnight, until we said "afterNOON"
@@azuregriffin1116 humans are so ignorant
Vilajet - Ultimately from Ottoman Turkish ولایت (vilâyet), from Arabic وِلَايَة (wilāya, “province”). Perhaps mediated via another European language.
@@herosstratos it comes from Indo Europian languages
Britain also used to be referred to as England mainly due to the fact that most ships used to dock there rather than in Scotland or Wales. This was perfectly normal until after WW2. This was particularly the case when Brits not from England were overseas.
I thought the people of The Isle of Man, viewed themselves as being a people, once seperate of the larger United Kingdom. I thought the people from The isle of Man still have strong indepent streak, and sense of a different culture.
Nice job. I've only ever heard Blighty used in the context of being overseas, and it is both ironic and nostalgic at the same time - as in "my blighted homeland". It's especially popular in Australia in that ironic way, reflecting the slightly awkward relationship with a country that once transported its prisoners there. The word is thus very different from the German "Deutsche Heimat" (where one might expect "Gemütlichheit").
Since you brought it up, "Merrie England" doesn't mean happy or jolly England. Merrie meant beautiful. My mother lived at Merivale (beautiful broad valley), and there is Meriden (beautiful woodland), and numerous other examples.
_Deutsche Heimat_ is very political these days, it's a bit like hanging the English flag out of your window when there isn't a football game happening. Or even when there is, IDK.
@@TheDotBot So too - I have learned from other comments here - is Blighty, apparently.
I am reminded of sitting at a street restaurant in Singapore not long after the Vietnam War ended. An American was seated at another table. As soon as it was realised that I was English, I was served promptly and the service was characteristically friendly, although I spoke no Chinese, and the waiters very little English. The unfortunate American was not served at all. He sat there alone, and eventually left, hungry.
I learned something that evening:
People can hold a grudge for things in whuch you played no part - but in time, they forgive and forget... unless you are American.
@@lindsayheyes925 Same for Germans. I'm originally English but naturalised German. On holidays with friends (from Germany) in the Netherlands, it was my turn to get the beer in so off I went to the shop as they were closing. They said "No we're closed" in German. Me: "When do you open again?" in English to try my luck anyway, they paused a second, asked me where I was from, I said England and the county I grew up in, and they let my buy my beer.
In the mid '70s I saw a Dutch soldier pull a knife on a.German soldier in a French bar after the German accidentally nudged him, spilling a bit of his drink. Fortunately his comrades jumped on him and frog-marched him outside. They were far too young to have known the war.
The Germans bought the Dutch lads a round, the two men shook hands, and they all spent the rest of the evening getting legless together... so drunk that the lad who'd pulled the knife accidentally walked straight through a closed glass door later - without getting a mark on him.
Thus was World War III was averted, Gott sei dank.
To us in India, Blighty is the place where this specific set of foreigners who we encountered a lot with called it their home. Blighty implied Britain and Ireland. Blighty in our conversations today mean the culture and place of British or Anglo-Celtic Isles.
To be fair, in India, they pronounce b's and w's with v's.
I said this to my Gujarati friend. He said "No ve don't" 🤣🤣🤣
Take me back to dear old Blighty!
Put me on the train for London town
Take me over there
Drop me anywhere
Liverpool, Leeds, or Birmingham, well, I don't care!
I should love to see my best girl
Cuddling up again we soon should be
(Whoa!)
Tiddley-iddley-ighty
Hurry me back to Blighty
Blighty is the place for me!
On a stricter note, vilayet simply means settlement or district.
I'm guessing the reason why Europe was labelled as "Vilayet" is because Ottoman regions were given the same name and Indians would gain knowledge about Europe by trading with the Ottomans, thus any European country would be called "firangi vilayet" to the point that simply vilayet was used.
Better known as Albion and God's own Acre.
I dont think "blighty" as a particularly fond term. at least not down in Australia. down here, its a very derogative term. a 'blight' is a generic term for a fungal or bacterial infestation. root blight or leaf blight. something nasty has infected my crop, that's a 'blight'. Dont know what it is yet, but we'll blame the British for it. which, historically, is pretty fair. the Bloody Blightys.
So, Dear Old Blighty is a product of Perfidious Albion!
Now I know. Yet another word I've used for years without really knowing where it came from solved.
what about 'The Great Blight'?,,,meaning, 'a devastating famine'? how would apply to 'Blighty England'?
I thought "Blighty" was a curse word. Being a foreigner who has only visited London twice.
Seems the British equivalent of the United States’ “Americana”, though obvious not as a nickname.
The British have an absolute pathology about refusing to use foreign words with authentic pronunciations. "Mumbai" becomes "Bombay?" "Vilyati" becomes "Blighty?" I swear, it is somehow in the British mindset to "improve" on other people's words because, being British, they must know better how to speak Urdu or Swahili than the natives.
Did I think The Smiths made up ‘Blighty’ for The Queen is Dead?
maybeee
The beginning of TQID is from a film called 'The L shaped room' where the song is sang.
This is nonsense. The Hobbit trilogy was filmed entirely in NZ and that's why the set was created there because location was cheaper. In fact most complex film sets are famously still created in British studios.
Don't forget, "vilayati" may not have been pronounced in Hindi as "vil-a-ya-ti", it may have been pronounced "bly-tee" (by the "Indians"). So the English term may have copied the Hindi term PHONETICALLY, precisely. The spelling therefore coming from the hindi word phonetically, written in the Latin alphabet following English grammatical generic rules. So the change from "vilayati" to "Blighty" may not have been quite so random and "blase" as you make out. A small point, but worth making.
That's right, it was pronounced with a B by some sections of native speakers-by the way, it's from Urdu (and Persian), not Hindi. Bilāyatī is a regional variant in Urdu of the more standard vilāyatī, and it's apparently this variant that Blighty comes from. It's been spelled and pronounced a variety of ways over the years, including belattee, belaitee, belati and balaití.
@@KonoShunkan Oh, thanks for confirming that for us KonoShunkan. Sorry for presuming the word was from Hindi.
Personally, I immediately thought of the song 'Great' by IDLES
For goodness sake it's like listening to SEO tags.
I'd heard the term in a Monty Python skit and wasn't sure I was hearing it correctly ("Blighty"? What the hell could that mean?) From context, I figured it was an expression for "home" but I had no idea...
Guess I'm going to have to get the book(s) now...
I always thought it was an affectional term for a British person .
"How you doing there , me old blighty?" Lol... understanding now why the term was used if it was a name for Britain itself..
But in saying that, I do recall a few old Ealing films in black and white using stars like Alec Guinness and John mills etc being in the army and stating a line when overseas with letter writing which would include .".tell me In your next letter how our dear blighty is .."
But it's true it hardly gets used these days .. we swap and change words too fast for us to even remember some that was most common just a generation ago ..! Lol
The British just change names of every foreign city or words. It’s nuts
All languages do.
That’s how languages branch off and develop.
Never heard of it except as a nick name for my great aunt because her names Enid and a famouse Enid Blyton then blyty. my family's good at giving members nick names for weird and wacky reasons
You tell us that you researched this video. In which case you will know that the "United Kingdom" refers to England, Scotland and Wales, whereas "Great Britain" refers to "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" !
I always thought GB stood for Gibraltar...
tbf gibraltar belongs to the uk
@@zulthyr1852 that was my logic I always thought Gibraltar was just more important than it is so it gets referred to like that sometimes as a representative of England??
Nice!
I’m British and have never heard that
How about “the old dart”?
What about Albion
Is this reupload?
no
@@aaronstanley6914 huh. I could have sworn he made a video talking about how lots of British slang including Blighty came from India. Must be mis remembering
@@thecommentguy8366 no your probably right it's just that sometimes he recycles facts (tho he normally would link back to the video he to that Trivia from)
I don’t know anyone that calls it Blighty anymore only in old war films and things.
Blighty isn't much of an endearment considering it is just blight with a y tacked on the end.
Hmm. Here's what I have assumed until this video: Britain throws its shadow over much of the world through colonization, spreading like a blight. Those in foreign lands ruled by Britain at some point call it Old Blighty, in a derogatory manor. Then with a sense of irony, the British themselves start using Blighty in a wistful way, perhaps thinking back to those colonizer days like, "remember when we ruled much of the world? We had big balls back in those days!" Eventually, the ironic part of it is lost, and it's just Old Blighty, with all of the dark origins of it removed.
You look like a Mike Myers character 😄
0:46 Is that a Holy Grail quote?
Great. "Blighty" has my second favourite etymology, after "nostril"!
The late AA Gill: 'Brexit is the fond belief that Britain is worse now than at some point in the foggy past where we achieved peak Blighty.'
To quote the Manic Street Preachers on dear old Arse Ache, a "Spiteful twisted unforgiven, sad and inverted and stunted, retarded ugly balding old man".
Brexit was simply taking back control of your own country. The EU is not a country or a state but it controls a vast majority of European countries. The more you study the EU, the more strange it appears.
My Japanese friends were shocked by how much control the EU had on individual countries. The UK joined the EEC but in reality never the EU.
@@Sir_Gerald_Nosehairs. Because of the un-PC things he said about the Welsh. So you're PC?
@@QPRTokyo And putting (further) control into the hands of Tory elites, while purging any Tory MP who was judged to be insufficiently enthusiastic about Brexit. The UK had the best of all of possible worlds - access to the European market, while keeping its own currency. Brexit was built on a fantasy, and now it's a shitshow.
I always thought that it was because of the potato disease that affects many potato crops in the damp climate.
And here I thought it was a corruption of the word blight meaning a pestilence of some variety, which kind of fits when you look at the Empire's growth around the planet, so I always assumed a hint of sarcasm when uttering "old Blighty"
cool it with the vocal fry
Because it's wet, damp every day it rains and causes blight
Isn’t Wales part of the kingdom of England unlike Scotland or has it been given separate status more recently
The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland became the Kingdom of Great Britain, so the Kingdom of England doesn’t really exist anymore.
@@JediSimpson Damn, I thought it still existed as a constituent nation of the UK
@@bobmcbob9856 - England, Scotland, and Wales are, but not as separate kingdoms.
For some purposes Wales was considered part of England until I think the 1950s
Wales and a Welsh dynasty invaded and conquered England at the battle of Bosworth Field, and installed a Welsh king (Henry Tudor). After which the Welsh Tudors, reinvented and recreated (there was nothing left of England) England and later merged the two nations, in law. Henry the Eigth wrote an act of parliament, and the two became one. He called it England (because the tudors liked sending English people over to fight the French) , but the two nations are effectively Wales, as England was completely conquered and was effecticely Wales' biatch.
@name explain you missed 50%of the meaning and history of this name, if you reply to me i will explain... Thanks love your content
The word/name that drives me mad is Lieutenant. Why the hell do the British say “Leftenant”? There’s no “F” in Lieutenant so why pronounce one? Does anyone know? 😱🤬
That’s what British squaddies do, invent there own language
These aren't Indian words they are originally Persian
It's called the laughing stock of the world now. It's finished.
It's also increasingly know as a banana republic post brexit
It's called blighty because it's a blight on the rest of us.
Another mispronunciation from India is kedgeree, it derived from a rice and vegetable dish called something like kich kerry. I don't know where the smoked fish and eggs come from, but I like to imagen a British officers demanding kippers and boiled eggs for breakfast
I've lived in Wales for 3 years and have never even heard that word 😳
It's out of fashion now
I don't think you'd normally hear in Britain outside the context of WWI, but British "expats" still use it a lot as in "So when are you going back to Blighty then?"
Ex-pats might use it, semi-ironically, but outside of situations like that it won’t come up.
oh ^^^^ what Dave said. I didn’t read the replies
Should one part not been called Northeast Ireland?
This could've been a minute long
We're British, not UK-ish.
the vocal fry
So, Blighty is to Britain what Americana is to America?
More like yankee
I'm sorry, I just went to the Wikipedia article instead!
Potatoe Blight!! Skin blight!! No it's Indian for England or visitor from England!!
*I don't know who needs to hear this but stop saving all your money, invest some of it if you really want financial freedom....*
Zero doubt crypto is so money making investment
This is the kind of information that we don’t get from most youtubers..
I could invest in Crypto but always got confused by it’s volatility in nature.
@@samueljackson695 That won't bother you if you trade with a professional like Mr Michael Wayne
Count me in, I’m placing my trades with Expert Michael Wayne ASAP
do shorts!!
I read that as bloaty.
The best country in the world, “grey” your words or not
Now I know.
Just call it England.
No relation to Britian being a blight? /s
Interesting for a Blighter like me.
Blighty ... Sewage Central.
The British Empire, like every empire, sure has been a blight on humanity
Fool
@@DaveSCameron if you think any empire has been good for humanity you're the fool.
@@koltonheath2517 And if you believe that all history was in a hoover so are you *
Blighty is the wife.
Blighted is more up to date.