Bloody - Usage Outside of The UK

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, Kevin Bloody Wilson, has even made it his middle name. Also in Australia, the word "bloody" is frequently used as a verbal hyphen, or 'infix', correctly called Tmesis as in "fanbloodytastic". 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.

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-clad spokeswoman 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.

The word as an expletive is seldom used in North America (except Newfoundland and Labrador). In the US the term is usually used when the intention is to mimic an Englishman, though there are some who have adopted it from the British as an everyday term. The term however can sometimes be seen in an American movie or TV episode. For example, in Episode One, Series One of 1987 TV series "Tour of Duty", an American infantry officer whose outpost is under attack, is seen screaming down the phone, "where the bloody hell are you?", attempting to get air support for a napalm attack. The term "scream bloody murder" (meaning to loudly object to something) is also in common use, without any connection with the British usage.

In Singapore, the word bloody is commonly used as a mild expletive in Singapore's colloquial English. The roots of this expletive derives from the influence and informal language British officers used during the dealing and training of soldiers in the Singapore Volunteer Corps and the early days of the Singapore Armed Forces.

When more Singaporeans were promoted officers within the Armed Forces, most new local officers applied similar training methods their former British officers had when they were cadets or trainees themselves. This includes some aspects of British Army lingo, like 'bloody (something)'.

When the newly-elected Singapore government implemented compulsory conscription, all 18 year old able bodied Singapore males had to undergo training within the Armed Forces. When National servicemen completed their service term, some brought the many expletives they picked up during their service into the civilian world and thus became a part of the common culture in the city state. The word 'bloody' also managed to spread to the north in neighbouring Malaysia, to where the influence of Singapore English has spread. The use of 'bloody' as a substitute for more explicit language increased with the popularity of British and Australian films and television shows aired on local television programmes.

The term 'bloody' in Singapore may not be considered explicit, but its usage is frowned upon in formal settings.