Phrase Origins: Blood, Sweat, and Tears
I have heard the phrase "blood, sweat, and tears," many times since my youth. Being that I've heard it so many times, I inferred that it meant something like "hard work," or "all my hard work." However, I've never actually looked up what it means and how it originated.
Meaning of the Phrase
The phrase "blood, sweat, and tears," means "hard work and effort in difficult times." However, I seem to hear it used even when times are not difficult. It has seem to come to mean "hard work and effort." The type of time it is never seems to matter. It may be a nice time and it may be a difficult time. Of course, if I think about it, when it comes to saying to have to put "blood, sweat, and tears" into any type of task, the time would seem like it was a difficult time for the person who did the work.
Phrase Origins
Most people think that Winston Churchill coined the phrase, "blood, sweat, and tears." This is because of a speech that he gave that in 1940 that contained the phrase, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." However, Churchill did not coin the phrase.
Churchill is the favorite "go to" person in Englad for the coinage of any phrase when the phrase's origin is not known. It is like people in Ireland attributing any phrase to Oscar Wilde or people in the United States attributing any phrase to Mark Twain.
The phrase has biblical beginnings. In the King James Version of the Bible, Luke 22:44 says, " And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
Of course, this is not the exact phrase. The exact phrase comes from a Welsh preacher named Christmas Evans who was known as "The Paul Bunyon of Wales." It is not certain if the Welsh translates directly to the phrase or if the translator did the best he cold to translate the phrase to English. However, it appears in the book Sermons on Various Subjects by Christmas Evans that was translated into English in 1837.
While the phrase was made popular by 1837, the popularity of the phrase grew in 1967. This is because Al Kooper decided to use the phrase as the name for his jazz-rock band.
Related Phrases
In Italy, the phrase is "lacrime e sangue." This translates to "blood and tears."
In France, the phrase is "suer sang et eau." This translates to "blood and water" or "blood and tears."
Sources:
Martin, G. (n.d.). Blood, sweat and tears. The meanings and origins of sayings and phrases . Retrieved January 2, 2012, from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/blood-sweat-and-tears.html
Personal Experience
Published by Bridget Ilene Delaney
Bridget Ilene Delaney is the author of "This is My Bucket." She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism. She writes many articles on a variety of other subjects. She is interested in diabetes compli... View profile
- My Blood Sweat and TearsHaving Seizures in my younger years...
- Through Blood, Sweat, and Tears You Can Pay Off Your DebtMany people want to pay off debt but aren't sure how to fit an extra payment into their monthly budget. This article gives five creative ways to earn some extra money.
- 7 Associated Content Articles that Give Me Hope and Motivation to WriteThese articles seemed to be the answers I was looking for. After reading them, I realized that I had another option instead of going out and working for someone else again.
- Memorial Day: A Time to Honor and Remember True American Heroism at "The Battle of...On an extremely cold winter's day on December 16, 1944, the longest and most horrific battle of WWII took place at the Ardennes Forest on the German/Belgium border. This is the story of that monumental fight for Ameri...
Singing and Swinging, Seventies StyleIt was the 70s, with long hair, bell bottoms, neon and the popular sound of big band music filling the high schoo band room.
- Consume Caffeine, Be a Mexican Jumping Bean
- Examining Nikos Kazantzakis' Ascesis: Salvatores Dei
- THE SNOWSTORM
- Blood, Sweat, and Tears
- Beer and Tears
- Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Hudson, and Kim Kardashian's Workout Plans
- How to Start on the Path to Becoming a Professional Wrestler - Blood, Sweat, and T...
4 Comments
Post a CommentBack to visit. I got to see Blood, Sweat & Tears a few times live:) Excellent description of the phrase, on the order of cinch the belt up another notch:)
Hmm. I thought I remembered the phrase from a song too. Of course that wouldn't have been the orgin though. Thank you for the information.
Nice job on this!
Great article on the phrase "blood, sweat, and tears" and glad you mentioned the group, also, an awesome group of musicians who give their all in performances!