Why is BLOODY a swear word?

Question

People think I am potty here, muttering 'By our Lady' over and over trying to make it sound like 'Bloody'. But I Bloody well cannot!
Surprised that some of you didn't know it was a swear word! Bloody surprised!

Answer 1

It came from Mary Tudor... aka Mary I Queen of England... She had a whole bunch of Protestants killed in an attempt to move England back to Catholicism thus earning the nickname Bloody Mary. Since then the term Bloody has been very offensive in England.

Answer 2

What is curious is why it has survived when others, like 'zounds (from God's wounds) have faded from the language or only used by people who are being deliberately antique.

I think you not only have to say 'By our lady' quickly but probably also with a Geordie accent. Some authorities seem to think that Geordie sounds more like the common English of several centuries ago. Or try saying 'Bloody' with a Geordie twang - I think it then sounds more plausibly a contract of 'By our lady'. As other's have said 'By our lady' is literally an oath or a phrase to swear by, a bit like saying 'on my mother's life'. Of course now the whole meaning of 'swearing' has change. Instead of it being the taking of god's (and his relatives) name in vain, it generally means spicing up language with words designed to shock.

Now what about 'ruddy'?

(I see two people have said that 'bloody' is in the bible. I can't really tell if they are serious. Shock report - the bible wasn't written in English. There may be a translation of some phrase which has been rendered by an English speaker as 'bloody' but that isn't the same thing).

Answer 3

Bloody is the adjectival form of blood but may also be used as a swear word or expletive attributive (intensifier) in Britain, Ireland, South East Asia, Australia, and increasingly North America. 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.
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".

How about that then, clever ain't I?

Answer 4

I suppose it was a swear word in the context of polite society of the time. I guess it gives a colourful expression too, of "blood" - red/anger/danger/pain.

Plus we've all been increasingly exposed to much worse swearing as expressions of coolness/displaying aggression/annoyance, on a daily basis, in all forms of media ; tv, movies, print - so swear words like "bloody" seem quite quaint.

In the 1939 GWTW movie, when Rhett Butler said "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn". I think the word "damn" cause a stir at the time as being highly risque language.

Answer 5

mid seventeenth century: from bloody1. using bloody to function emphasis to an expression is of uncertain beginning, yet is theory to have a connection with the ‘bloods’ (aristocratic rowdies) of the previous due seventeenth and early 18th centuries; subsequently the word bloody under the impression of alcohol (= as under the impression of alcohol as a blood) meant ‘very under the impression of alcohol certainly’. After the mid 18th century until quite presently bloody used as a swear word replaced into recognized as unprintable, probable from the wrong theory that it implied a blasphemous connection with the blood of Christ, or that the word replaced into an alteration of ‘by making use of Our female’; subsequently a frequent warning in making use of the term even in words, which includes bloody conflict, in straightforward terms touching on bloodshed

Answer 6

Its Not---
There's Bloody in the bible
There's Bloody in the book
If you don't Bloody believe me
Have a Bloody Look
;o)

Answer 7

In the Tower of London, there is a Bloody Tower - The Kids think it's really naughty saying they want to go to that tower.

Answer 8

It derives from "By our Lady" (meaning the Blessed Virgin Mary) but saying "By Our Lady" was just TOO rude so it was contracted to "bloody."

Answer 9

Bloody's in the Bible,
bloody's in the Book.
If you don't bloody believe me,
have a bloody look!!!

Answer 10

Because it comes from English, an oath on the Virgin Mary.

"By Our Lady"

Try saying that quite quickly, with an English accent..