Usage
Although in the 17th century 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", "bleaking", "cruddy", "smuddy", "blinking", "blooming", "bally", 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!" and this led to a fad for using "Pygmalion" itself as a pseudo-oath, as in "Not Pygmalion likely".
The use of bloody in adult UK broadcasting aroused controversy in the 1960s and 1970s but is now unremarkable (for example, in the Harry Potter movies, which are geared towards children, the character Ron says "bloody hell" many times in all the movies).
The term "Bloody hell", often pronounced "Bloody 'ell," can mean "Damn it," or be used as a general expression of surprise or as a general intensifier. It is talked about in a limerick about the letter H (aitch):
Letter aitch, in some tongues, you can tell,
Is pronounced not at all, or not well.
By the Brits it is rated
Their second-most hated,
Right after, of course, "bloody ell."
Read more about this topic: Bloody
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)
“Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)