Where does the phrase "in cold blood" come from?

Question

Where does the phrase "in cold blood" come from?

Answer 1

COLD BLOOD -- "Early physiologists believed that the blood actually boiled within the body when a person grew excited and that it grew cold when someone was calm or detached.. While the term 'in hot blood' suggested by the belief is no longer heard (hot-blooded is), 'in cold blood' remains as common as it was back in the late 16th century.Mankind has always regarded calculated killing in cold blood as something less than human." "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board...

Think of the effect of doing something with emotion, passion or great exertion. The blood flows to your face and you feel hot. At a time before our understanding of the human body was as good as it is now, it was thought that the blood actually grew hot at such times. We still have a set of phrases in the language that reflect this, such as his blood boiled or in the heat of passion, which contrast with others that describe a person whose blood is cold or cool, so detached or uninvolved. So, an action that was carried out without excitement or emotional involvement was said to have been taken when the blood was cold (the exact equivalent of the French sang froid). The phrase is now usually taken to refer to some act that might look like an act of passion but which was actually done with cool deliberation; it’s first recorded in Joseph Addison’s Spectator in 1711.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-inc1...

Answer 2

It is an allusion to the ancient belief that blood ran hot and cold and the temperature controlled the temper. "in cold blood" means done without remorse.

Answer 3

Good question, but sorry i've no idea.

Answer 4

without emotion , it was believed the blood raised in temperature if a person was emotionally touched and remained cold if a person was not affected by his or her own actions .

Answer 5

I'm not sure exactly, but I've always thought it was because when you are angry and 'hot-blooded', your temperature does increase.

When you are calm, your face isn't red with anger and you aren't hopping about with adrenaline, so you act 'in cold blood'.

Good question!

Answer 6

There are crimes of passion and there are calculated crimes.

Crimes of passion are traditionally committed by people who are "hot-blooded" - folks who are passionate, temperamental, or lose control based on their emotions.

A crime that is committed by someone who chooses to harm or kill another based on "facts" or calculated planning doesn't have the luxury of blaming his or her hot temper. Instead, he is considered to be cold-blooded and cruel, thus the term "killing in cold blood".