Bloody is the adjectival form of blood but may also be used as an expletive attributive (intensifier) in Britain, Ireland, Canada, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. 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. Etymology 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"[LINK: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/s97s/letter24.html] [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 (Methu

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