[Ads-l] blood and guts

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED: 1894. (The literal phrase is much older.)

'Extreme violence and bloodshed, esp. as described or depicted as
entertainment'

1878 _Niobrara Pioneer_ (Niobrara, Neb.) (Feb. 8) 1 [Newspapers.com] : What
experience his honor has had...he ludicrously sets forth in his narrative
of "blood and guts" [about soldiers and Indians].

1887 _Cincinnati Enquirer_ (Sept. 24) 1 [Newspapers.com]: The British
Nation...seemed to revel in blood and guts.

Also fig.:

1895 _Birmingham [Ala.] Age-Herald_ (May 17) 1 [GenealogyBank]: There would
be a blood and guts [election] campaign, and hell would break loose in
Georgia.

To "sweat blood and guts":

1887 _Washington [Kans.] Daily Post_ (Apr. 29) [4] [Newspapers.com]: He is
sweating blood and guts to show it.

The "Blood and Guts" was/is also the British red ensign flown by merchant
ships. Not in OED:

1891 _East Kent Times and Mail_  (Ramsgate, Kent) (Jan. 29) 3
[Newspapers.com]: We have not a red ensign, or "Old blood and guts" as it
is here inelegantly described.

1893 _Akron Beacon and Journal_  (Oct. 5) 1 [Newspapers.com]: The stars and
stripes and the "blood and guts" faced each other to-day for the American
cup.

And as an oath:

1795 _United States Gazette_  (Phila,) (Sept. 5) 2 [GenealogyBank]: They
may shoot at us, but we may not shoot at them! Blood and guts! Pox take the
hindmost!

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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