Blighty

Blighty is British army slang for Britain or home, the word’s origin lies in British rule in India, as bilāyatī, a regional variant of vilāyatī, an Urdu word meaning ‘foreign’, and specifically ‘British’ or ‘European’, which remains in use in India and Pakistan today. Rudyard Kipling, for example, used the word, and also used the related Belait, to refer to Britain. According to the OED, the first known use of 'Blighty' referring to Britain was in 1900, in a letter home from a British soldier in South Africa, during the Second Anglo-Boer War. A 'blighty', without a capital letter, was also a wound that enabled a soldier to be discharged from duty and return home from the First World War. This usage dates from 1914.