2264: (Old) Blighty Feb 26, 2021

The nickname for England or Britain as 'Blighty' came as military slang, especially as used by the soldiers of the World Wars. In particular, it was used by those in the Indian army as an alteration of the Urdu bilāyatī meaning 'foreign' or often broadly just 'European', though the original Arabic meaning was not so specific and could be used to refer to any region or district. Today it is often used in England affectionately, but obviously stripped of its original meaning.