bleeder

   Originally a euphemism employed in British university circles for ‘bloody fool’, bleeder seems to have rapidly come into low colloquial use at the end of the nineteenth century, especially in the London region. ‘You silly bleeder’ would be a typical expression. In Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, by Alan Sillitoe, a Nottingham woman shouts at a man: ‘Mind what ye’r doin’, yer young bleeder.’ She equates it with ‘you cheeky sod’. A Kind of Loving, by Stan Barstow, has an exchange between two men where the older one asks: ‘Who mentioned my name?’ ‘I did’, the younger one says, ‘I was just saying I’d bought a pig and I didn’t know what to call it’ ‘You cheeky young bleeder…’ is the response, accompanied by a physical attack.