Big Smoke

Big Smoke

Big Smoke can refer to:
*"The Big Smoke", a name applied to various cities, including:
**Belfast
**London, because of its smog (though this has declined, and the name with it)
**Melbourne, labelled as such in the late 19th century during the industrial boom following the Victorian gold rush, often by provincial Victorians and by people from other parts of Australia.
**Toronto
**Dublin
**Vancouver, British Columbia because of its occasional heavy fogs and in the past, millsmoke ("smoke" in the old trade language there meant "fog" and "cloud").

*a
* Great Smog of 1952, air pollution in London

Early usage

William Haygarth, writing about 1840s New South Wales, Australia says that Sydney was referred to as the 'big smoke' by Aboriginal people. [Haygarth, W.H. Recollections of bush life in Australia during a residence of eight years in the interior 1848] .

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

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