An inexplicably offensive adjective

Until recently the word ‘bloody’ was considered unprintable because many wrongly assumed it originated as an oath, shortening ‘By Our Lady’, a reference to the Virgin Mary, or a reference to the blood of Christ. It may have simply been a reference to the grotesque habits of wealthy 17th-century socialites, or ‘bloods’ – ‘bloody drunk’ being ‘as drunk as a blood’.

While Miss Edgeworth got away with writing “bloody” in the 1801 children’s novel, Belinda, soon after the word was censored. Even in 1914, when Eliza Doolittle proclaimed, “Walk! Not bloody likely! I am going in a taxi!” in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, the decency leagues were up in arms.