Bloody is the adjectival form of blood but may
also be used as a swear word or expletive attributive
(intensifier) in Britain, Ireland, Canada, South East Asia, Australia,
New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. Nowadays it is considered (by
most of the population of these countries) to be a very mild expletive, and unlikely to cause offence in most circles.
Etymology
Some say it may be derived from the phrase "by Our Lady", a sacrilegious invocation of the
Virgin Mary. The abbreviated form "By'r Lady" is common in Shakespeare's plays around the turn of the 17th century, and
interestingly Jonathan Swift about 100 years later writes both "it grows by'r Lady cold"
and "it was bloody hot walking to-day" [1] suggesting that a transition from one to the other could have been under way. Others
regard this explanation as dubious. Eric Partridge, in Words, Words, Words
(Methuen, 1933), describes this as "phonetically implausible".
Geoffrey Hughes in Swearing: A social history of foul language, oaths and profanity
in English (Blackwell,
1991), points out that "by my lady" is not an adjective whereas "bloody" is, and suggests that the
slang use of the term started with "bloody drunk" meaning "fired up and ready for a fight".
Another thought is that it simply comes from a reference to blood, a view that Partridge prefers. However, this overlooks the considerable strength of social and religious pressure in
past centuries to avoid profanity. This resulted in the appearance of words that in some cases appear to bear little relation to
their source: "Crikey" for "Christ"; "Gee" for "Jesus"; "Heck" for
"Hell"; "Gosh" for "God"; "dash", "dang" or "darn"
for "damn". These, too, might be considered implausible etymologies if looked at only from the
point of view of phonetics. Given the context in which it is used, as well as the evidence of Swift's writing, the possibility
that "bloody" is also a minced oath cannot be lightly dismissed. The suggestion that it
originated as a reference to Jesus "bleeding" on the cross is compelling for its shock value, callousness and sacrilegious
intent, just as the Irish, and those of the diaspora, will exclaim "suffering Jesus" in response to something shocking.
Usage
Although in the 1600s the word appeared to be relatively innocuous, after about
1750 the word assumed more profane connotations in the
UK and British Empire. Various substitutions were
devised to convey the essence of the oath, but with less offence; these included "bleeding", "blinking", "blooming" and
"ruddy".
On the opening night of George Bernard Shaw's comedy Pygmalion in 1914, Mrs Patrick
Campbell, in the role of Eliza Doolittle, created a sensation with the line "Walk! Not bloody likely!"
The use of bloody in adult UK broadcasting aroused controversy in the 1960s &
1970s but is now unremarkable (for comparison, in the Harry
Potter movies, which are geared towards children, the character Ron says "bloody hell" many times in all five movies).
Usage outside of the UK
Bloody has always been a very common part of Australian speech and has not
been considered profane there for some time. The word was dubbed "the Australian adjective" by The Bulletin on 18 August 1894. One
Australian performer has even made it his middle name, to show how Australian he is [citation needed], - Kevin Bloody Wilson. In the 1940s an Australian divorce court judge
held that "the word bloody is so common in modern parlance that it is not regarded as swearing". Meanwhile,
Neville Chamberlain's government was fining Britons for using the word in
public.
The word as an expletive is seldom used in the USA, but it is sometimes used
to imitate or ridicule the British. The term "bloody murder" (usually in reference to a
particularly loud scream or yell) is also in common use, without any connection with the British usage. The term is usually used
when the intention is to mimick an Englishman, though there are some who have adopted it from the British as an everyday
term.
There is also "Bloody hell", often pronounced "Bloody 'ell," which can mean "Damn it," or be
used as a general expression of surprise or as a general intensifier.
In March 2006 Australia's national tourism commission launched an advertising campaign targeted at potential visitors in several English-speaking countries. The ad
sparked a surprise controversy because of its ending (in which a cheerful, bikini-wearing female spokesperson delivers the ad's
call-to-action by saying "...so where the bloody hell are you?").
Initially, the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC)
required that a modified version of the ad be shown in the United Kingdom, without the word "bloody". However, in May 2006, the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the word "bloody" was
not an inappropriate marketing tool and the original version of the ad was permitted to air.
In Malaysia and to a certain extent Singapore, the word
bloody is commonly used as an expletive. One example is "bloody bastard" which has been transformed into a more polite word,
"bloody-basket" or "blardi-basket" in Manglish, the colloquial version of the
English language as spoken in Malaysia. Other examples include "Wah!! Damn bloody hot!", usually a reference to the unimaginably
hot weather in Malaysia, even for the locals.[citations needed]
In Canada, bloody can be occasionally heard throughout English Canada, although it is uncommon in usage when compared to the UK and Australia.
See also
External links
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