What is the exact meaning of “blood-dimmed (tragedy),” and how does it pass current among Anglophones?

Question

I was drawn to the word, “blood-dimmed tragedy” in the following statement of Maureen Dowd’s article titled, “Peeping Barry” in June 8 New York Times:

You could see the fear in his eyes, the fear that froze him in place,
  after Andy Card whispered to W. in that Florida classroom that a
  second plane had crashed into the twin towers. The blood-dimmed
  tragedy of 9/11 was chilling. But instead of rising above the fear, W.
  let it overwhelm his better instincts.

I know ‘blood-chilling’ and ‘blood-curdling’. But as I don’t know the word, “blood-dimmed,” I consulted English dictionaries at hand and online. None of OED, CED and Merriam-Webster includes this word and nor does Google Ngram register any incidence of “blood-dimmed.”

However, I found that “blood-dimmed tragedy” is a twist of “the blood-dimmed tide is loosed,” in William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming.”

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
  
  The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
  
  Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
  
  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
  
  The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
  
  The ceremony of innocence is drowned;"

I wonder why Dowd – I know she loves flowery expressions - doesn’t plainly say ‘the tragedy of 9/11 was blood-chilling / curdling’ instead of ‘the blood-dimmed tragedy of 9/11 was chilling.”

How does the word “blood-dimmed,” which I cannot find in any of mainstream English dictionaries, pass current among average English speaking people? Will I be frowned on, or not, if I say “I saw a  blood-dimmed car accident in my neighborhood yesterday” to my English speaking friend?

FumbleFingers · Accepted Answer

You'd probably raise some eyebrows if you used blood-dimmed in normal conversation. It's not at all a common usage, and I'd hazard a guess that even most native speakers wouldn't be too clear on the exact meaning (it's dimmed = made dim, dark, akin to rivers dark with blood).

I also doubt most people would recognise the allusion to Yeats’ poem, but it certainly seems to me most references to blood-dimmed in Google Books are followed by the word tide, and do in fact stem directly from “The Second Coming”.

In this case I think it's probably fair to say Dowd is aiming more for a sense of "scholarly erudition" than "flowery language". She probably knows most of her readers won't pick up on the reference, but she assumes the few that do will admire her for using it (and themselves for "getting it").

StoneyB on hiatus · Answer

SUPPLEMENTARY:
I think FumbleFingers not only hits the nail on the head, he drives it pretty much home. This is just to countersink it by addressing this piece of your question:

I wonder why Dowd [...] doesn’t plainly say ‘the tragedy of 9/11 was blood-chilling / curdling’ instead of ‘the blood-dimmed tragedy of 9/11 was chilling.”

Whatever her use of it, Dowd has a pretty firm grip on how the language works; so I think she says blood-dimmed rather than blood-chilling because that's what she means. Dimmed means made not just dim and dark but also obscure, difficult to make out; Dowd is suggesting that W's fear was aroused not just by the horror of the event but by its opacity.

Kristin Helmick · Answer

Per enotes.com,

The anarchy and blood-dimmed tide Yeats describes allude to the Russian revolution and World War I, both shocking and violent events in the European consciousness. A bloody tide seems to be rushing in everywhere. Because there is so much blood, innocence itself appears to have been drowned in it. People can no longer live in innocence, because too much death and violence has occurred.

So a blood-dimmed event would be shocking, violent, and bloody, affecting everything and everyone it touches.

What is the exact meaning of “blood-dimmed (tragedy),” and how does it pass current among Anglophones?

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