Blighty one

English

Etymology

From the fact that such a wound would have one be sent back to England (Blighty).

Noun

Blighty one (plural Blighty ones)

1. (military slang) A wound that is relatively minor, but sufficiently severe that one will be sent to the hospital in England.
   • 2012, J. R. Ackerley, My Father and Myself, →ISBN:

     Though my thoughts did not formulate themselves so clearly or so crudely at the time, I had a “Blighty” one, that sort of wound that all the soldiers sighed and sang for (“Take me back to dear old Blighty”), and my platoon, in which I had taken much pride, could now look after itself.

   • 2014, Tony Bradman, Stories of World War One, →ISBN:

     'Well, Smudge,' says Danny, 'I heard you'd copped a Blighty One.'

   • 2014, Judith Saxton, The Glory, →ISBN:

     'Well, lad, you've got yourself a Blighty one, by the looks!' The orderly patted Mark's neatly bandaged torso.

   • 2014, E.G.D. Living, Walking into Hell 1st July 1916: Memoirs of the First Day of the Somme, →ISBN:

     How often on the march one had looked back oneself into a passing ambulance and wished, rather shamefully, for a “Blighty” one.