Digger is New Zealand and Australian military slang term for soldiers from New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island A soldier is a general English term that refers to a member of a land component of National Armed forces. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. It originated during World War I. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All
There are numerous theories about the origin of the term. Before the war, the term "digger" had been widely used in Australasia to mean a miner, or a Kauri gum-digger in New Zealand. Australasia is a Region of Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring Islands in the Pacific Mining is the extraction of valuable Minerals or other geological materials from the earth usually (but not always from an Ore body The genus Agathis, commonly known as kauri or dammar, is a relatively small Genus of 21 species of Evergreen Trees in the Gum-diggers were men and women who dug for kauri gum a fossilised Resin, in the old kauri fields of New Zealand at the end of the nineteenth On 25 April 1915, General Sir Ian Hamilton sent a message to the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), General William Birdwood, following the landing at Gallipoli. Events 1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton GCB GCMG DSO TD (16 January 1853 &mdash 12 October 1947 was a general in the British Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood 1st Baron Birdwood, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, CIE, DSO The landing at Anzac Cove was part of the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula by British and French forces on April It contained the postscript: "P. PostScript ( PS) is a dynamically typed concatenative Programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982 S. —You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig, until you are safe. " However, there is no hard evidence to support the theory that Hamilton's message is the reason why digger was applied to ANZAC troops in general. W. H. Downing, in Digger Dialects (1919), a glossary of words and phrases used by Australian personnel during the war, says that Digger was first used to mean a New Zealand or Australian soldier in 1916. See also List of glossaries A glossary is a list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year It appears to have become popular among New Zealand troops, before being adopted by Australians. The word was not in wide use amongst soldiers until 1917. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year One other theory is the fact that ANZAC troops were especially good at digging tunnels between their own trenches and the enemies, and were regarded by both sides as diggers, one was derogatory and the other was in jest. Because the job of digging between the trenches was very hard, especially when both sides diggers met in the tunnels, ANZACS believe that it is a form of complement to be referred to diggers, because to be of any merit you had to be very good at this hard job, and to be regarded as diggers was due to there skill at their job.
While New Zealanders would call each other "Digger", all other nationalities, including Australians, tended to call them "Kiwis". Kiwi is the nickname used internationally for people from New Zealand, as well as being a relatively common self-reference The equivalent slang for a British soldier was "Tommy" from Tommy Atkins. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Tommy Atkins (often just Tommy) is a term for a common soldier in the British Army that was already well established in the nineteenth century but is particularly However, while the Anzacs would happily refer to themselves as "Diggers", British soldiers generally resented being called "Tommy".
Throughout Australia when one refers to "digger", one is referring to the Australian Army.
Between 1998 and 2003, the term was used in the name of a team in the Victorian Football League, the Bendigo Diggers. History The Victorian Football Association (VFA was founded in 1877 on 17 May. The Bendigo Bombers are an Australian rules football club based in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia playing in the Victorian Football League This was partly in reference to Bendigo's history as a centre of the gold-mining industry. Bendigo is a regional city in central Victoria Australia, located in the City of Greater Bendigo. Gold (ˈɡoʊld is a Chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and Atomic number 79 The team changed its nickname to "Bombers" when it became a feeder club for Essendon. Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club and is part of the Australian Football League. In 2001, Athletics Australia suggested that it would use "Diggers" as the nickname of the Australian athletics team. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Athletics Australia is the Peak body for all track and field athletics activity in Australia. A nickname is a Name of an entity or thing that is not its Proper name. The proposal was withdrawn after a public outcry and protest from the RSL (Returned and Services League of Australia). The Returned and Services League of Australia (often abbreviated to RSL) is a support organisation for men and women who have served or are serving in the Australian
John Campbell Ross (born March 11, 1899) is the last surviving Digger from World War I. John Campbell "Jack" Ross (born March 11, 1899) is at the age of 109 Australia 's oldest man and the last Australian veteran of the Events 1425 BC - Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty Year 1899 ( MDCCCXCIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
See also
References
- W. The Anzac spirit or Anzac legend is a concept which suggests that Australian and New Zealand soldiers possess shared national H. Downing, 1919, Digger Dialects (ISBN 0-19-553233-3),
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