Old Dart en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
Possibly from the river Dart in Devonshire which enters the sea at Dartmouth, location of a Royal Navy College. Royal Navy officers who were returning to England at the end of a foreign tour of duty referred to going back to the "Old Dart" for further training. Alternatively a variation of "old dirt" (compare old sod).
Meanings
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(Australia, New-Zealand) Britain, England, London, or Ireland; the Old Country.
‘I have a whole range of new talents, Dad. I can muster a mob of cattle, break in a horse, speak pidgin, and at a pinch, stitch up someone′s head.’ ‘Very useful in the Old Dart,’ he commented dryly and returned to his newspaper.
2003, Di Morrissey, Barra Creek, published 2010, page 432:Marsh′s experiences during his first days in the Old Dart were no different from most Australian cricketers′.
2004, Mark Browning, Rod Marsh: A Life in Cricket, page 55:J. A. W. has still, I am persuaded, any amount of friends in the Old Dart.
1872, Pen-name Auld Lang Syne, Original Correspondence, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Beechworth, Victoria, 20 July 1872, page 2:The ‘Old Dart’ mattered little to German Australians but the empire was another matter and Australia was their home.
2003, John Williams, German Anzacs And The First World War, page 9:You recollect that when I left the Colony to visit the old dart, besides the usual allowance granted...
1876, Magguffin, Random Notes, Oamaru Mail, 24 June 1876, page 2:
- (UK, colloquial) Dartmouth Royal Navy College.