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Bleedingly obvious

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on October 12, 2007

In Reply to: Bleedingly obvious posted by Sam on October 12, 2007

: Does anyone know the origin of "bleedingly obvious"?

The usual form is "bleeding obvious", not "bleedingly" (yes, I know "bleedingly" would be more grammatical, but we're dealing with popular idiom here). It's an English English euphemism for "bloody obvious", which up to, oh, say 20-30 years ago was too rude a thing to say in polite company over here. Nobody really knows why "bloody" came to be such a naughty word, since unlike virtually every other improper word in English it is neither sexual, lavatorial nor blasphemous. Note that any stories you may hear about its being a corruption of "By Our Lady!" are fanciful; it certainly means "bloody" as in "covered with blood". (VSD)

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