who was "bloody Nora"?

[v551dln]

I have often heard the use of the phrase "bloody nora" as an expression of frustration but who was she please?

[Wraith]

I seem to recall this being an expression used by one of the characters in the 70's TV series 'Love Thy Neighbour'.

[Quizmonster]

The �Nora' is not a woman's name but a form of the word �horror'. The phrase started off as "flaming horror" (or "flipping/bloody etc horror") as a cry of dismay/disbelief. In the normal Cockney manner, the final �g' and the opening �h' were dropped to produce something that sounded like "flamin-orror" and that in turn over the years became "Flamin' Nora!"...or "Bloody Nora" as a stronger alternative.

[_madge]

I bloody made it up in the 60's.

We had an elderly Irish neighbour called Nora move into our block of flats (Tunis House, Harford St, Stepney) and she had fell down in the entrance to the block and cut her hand and grazed a knee.

My mum shouted down asking what was happening and I shouted back and said It was bloody, Noras fallen down. From then on she bcame a friend to the family and we always called her Bloody Nora.

Tunis House is now knocked down but the Gasworks opposite is still there. http://www.gettyimage...314132/Hulton-Archive

Madge
http://www.madge.tk/