In British stories and books, sometimes I find the phrase “bloody all” (sometimes “f^^k all.” For example, “I know it’s a stupid policy, but there’s f&&k all I can do about it.” In other words, nothing, emphatically. How did this apparently backwards phrase get started? Furthermore, is it still in use, or am I pondering over an obsolete usage?
It’s usually “bugger all” here in Australia, or sometimes: “fk all", "sweet fk all”, or if you’re being polite, sweet F.A., or even “Sweet Fanny Adams”.
Sorry, I have no idea how it started, but I can provide you with one of my favourite jokes:
Magistrate (to the defendant): Do you have anything to say for youself?
Defendant: F**k all, Your Worship.
Magistrate (to solicitor): WHAT DID YOUR CLIENT JUST SAY???
Solicitor: He said, “F**k all, Your Worship”.
Magistrate: Funny, I could’ve sworn I saw his lips move.
Oops, I missed your last question.
“Bugger all” and “F**k all” are very much alive here in Australia, and I think the same is the case in the United Kingdom. The other, euphemistic variants I listed are a little old fashioned now, but you still hear them occasionally.
Here in Canada, “dick all” is common. “Piss all” is another variant.
Are you sure it’s ‘bloody all’? Bloody doesn’t get used in that way - it’s an adverb/adjective, and doesn’t fit in that phrase. We say ‘bugger all,’ which could mean ‘there may be something for all I know, but I don’t care, so bugger all of it.’
Isn’t the phrase (and its many permutations) a form of sarcasm?
If someone asks “Did you get anything?”
A person who got nothing can say “No, I didn’t”
Or “I got nothing”
Or “Oh yeah, I got it all” (dripping with sarcasm)
Or “I got bloody everything” (dripping with sarcasm)
it doesn’t take much to get to the shortened versions in the OP.
Well, it does seem to have spread over much of the English-speaking world. I wonder why it never caught on here in the USA. Maybe it’s because we yanks don’t know how to speak English, eh? I’ve even heard my fellow midwestern yanks say, “Not bloody likely,” but never “fk all.” More’s the pity, it seems like a useful phrase.
–Nott