I have scoured the internet (including word origins and word doctor), the SD stuff, and various dictionaries to no avail. Please, somebody tell.
just a WAG, but I always assumed it is because the seats are so high (high altutude = nosebleed for some folk).
Donovan is right. Or did you mean, who was the first to use it? I don’t think you’re going to find that
Surprisingly, Lighter can cite it in print only back to 1978.
The altitude=nosebleed theory makes sense, but so do a lot of other seemingly common-sensical origins of other phrases. How can we be sure? Why not call them the “oxygentank” seats? or the “lightheaded” seats? To that end, I think it would be neat to see what the original quote was, especially if it only goes back to 1978.
“Nosebleed” is a two-syllable word which is easy to pronounce, making it more adoptable than “oxygentank” or “lightheaded”.
Like Monitor vs Merrimac, auditory appeal matters more than hrd fact.
I wrote my post and immediately after writing it anticipated Bryan Ekers pithy comeback. I can only say such an explanation is far from satisfying. If it was brevity they were after, we could just call the seats “mile-high”!
Mile-high doesn’t have the poetic grace of nosebleed, which makes the point through implication and has a more personal feel to it. While Mile-high works great describing Denver’s geography, it lacks something in expressing the despair one feels climbing up high in a stadium and then seeing the “ants” on the field/stage.
The aptness of nosebleed is in the fact that some people do get nosebleeds at high altitude. As to why nosebleed rather than any other terms one might conjecture, it was “firstest with the mostest.” These things aren’t decided by careful deliberation and voting among options, they come from some inspired remark that catches on with the public. Once such a catchphrase is established, it’s difficult or impossible to change it, even if an arguably “better” term is thought up.
I understand that catchphrases are arbitrary and subjective which is why I’m wondering about specific origins. Perhaps the question is impossible to answer as was insinuated by some other posters. Maybe I’ll try to get in touch with an etymologist.
Well, I remember using the phrase “our seats were in the nosebleed section” to describe our seats the first time I saw Springsteen in concert, in 1976. It was certainly recognized and understood by all present in our group at the time.
Well, I remember hearing Henny Youngman tell a joke (this was in the mid-1960s) about an usher guiding him to his seat at the theatre saying, “You’re on your own from here- any higher and my nose starts to bleed.”
I’m not saying Youngman originated the phrase, I merely use this as proof people were using that phrase as a comic shorthand for “these are lousy seats” at LEAST that far back. Heck, most of Henny Youngman’s jokes were ancient even then!