'Twas a bloody sight better than county gaol.'
As regards derivation, dual causes seem to have operated in the evolution of bloody in its depraved sense. The various stages are summarised by Murray, in so far as evidence will permit, as follows. The origin is not quite certain; but there is good reason to think that it was at first a reference to the habits of the 'bloods' or aristocratic rowdies of the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th c. The phrase 'bloody drunk' was apparently = 'as drunk as a blood' (Cf., 'as drunk as a lord'); thence it was extended to kindred expressions, and at length to others; probably in later times, its associations with bloodshed and murder (Cf., a bloody battle, a bloody butcher) have recommended it to the rough classes as a word that appeals to their imagination. We may compare the prevalent craving for impressive or graphic intensives, seen in the use of jolly, awfully, terribly, devilish, deuced, damned, ripping, rattling, thumping, stunning, thundering, etc. There is no ground for the notion that bloody, offensive as from association it now is to ears polite, contains any profane allusion, or has connection with the oath ''sblood!' In this particular it may be noted that Mr. C. G. Leland is in error when he says 'Mr. Hotten thinks this is an expletive without reference to any [italics not in original] meaning.' Mr. Hotten neither said nor implied anything of the kind, but just the reverse; and Mr. Leland has hung his remarks upon a misquotation.
Hotten's exact words are 'bloody, an expletive used, without reference to meaning, as an adjective and an adverb, simply for intensification'—a very different thing; ergo as far as Hotten goes he is absolutely correct.
There seems little doubt, however, that the association of bloody with bloodshed and murder has had a very large influence in determining its present bad signification in the mouth of a cockney of the lower classes. It is noteworthy, too, that the German blutig is sometimes used, says H. Tiedeman [N. and Q., 4 S., i., Feb. 8, 1868], in the same manner as the London bloody:—While living in Dresden, I heard many times uttered such phrases as—
'Ichhabe keinen blutigen Heller mehr,'
[I have no bloody penny or 'red cent' more],
for 'I have not a single penny left,' etc. Was, then, the Dresden blutig introduced to the London mob in the shape of bloody? The Dutch bloedig may be used figuratively, just as the French sanglant. Une injure sanglante might be translated by 'een bloedige beleediging.' It might, and it is in fact, sometimes used to qualify an adjective. To say 'bloedig schoon' (literally, 'bloody beautiful'), would be perfectly correct, but then it has not the sense of exceedingly; it keeps its original meaning. 'Bloedig schoon' could not be rendered otherwise than by sanguinary and beautiful.
1676. Sir G. Etheredge., Man of Mode (Act i., Sc. 1), p. 186, ed. 1723.
Dor. Give him half-a-crown.
Med. Not without he will promise to be bloody drunk.
