What does "Bleeder" mean?

[Oversleep]

I'm asking because today I got my hands on Polish translation. While reading in English I hadn't bothered with it, as I assumed it meant somebody who bleeds or make someone bleed. Like bloodletting.

I was surprised it was translated as "barber surgeon" (this term totally sounds better in my language).
 

So here I am: what does it really mean? Are there other meanings? What did you think it meant?

[Observer]

So far as I know it's most common connotation is one who bleeds or, given it's an assassin name, one who makes others bleed. Maybe I'm just bad with english and linguistic origins, but it doesn't have any other meanings i know of.

[Jondesu he/him]

I checked the dictionary on my phone and it says "Someone who bleeds easily, such as a hemophiliac". I'd be surprised if that was the meaning Brandon was going for, though the other option was a baseball term, which is even less likely I would bet.

Actually... "A ground ball that barely passed between two infielders" has interesting connotations here.

jW

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Perhaps it means her sanity is bleeding away, slowly but surely, without her other blessing

[Aonar he/him]

Personally, I felt it fit well with some of her comments where she seemed to see herself as a "healer" of sorts; bleeder could, in that context, have connotations involving archaic medical practices, like leeching and bloodletting. This seems to be supported by the Polish translation that you've given. ("Barber surgeon" was a term for battlefield medics during medieval times, when practices like those were common.)

[jasenerd]

Bleeders were also a gang in old England/Britain. I think this was just after the industrial revolution there. They were a "gentleman" gang because they didn't steal things, only hurt people. They used nasty weapons specifically to make other people bleed more, hence "Bleeders".

 

So it might have a touch of historical context there too.

[kenod]

It could have just been a translation thing, in my language they translated Allomancy as ore magic.

Edited July 21, 2016 by kenod
typo

[Kelsier's Boxing Glove]

On 05.03.2016 at 4:49 AM, Oversleep said:

it was translated as "barber surgeon"

This is an incredibly awesome translation and I'm bumping this thread for it. She even described herself as "the surgeon" when asked. I applaud whoever did it, doubly so if it's a single word in Polish.

[Oversleep]

12 hours ago, Kelsier's Boxing Glove said:

This is an incredibly awesome translation and I'm bumping this thread for it. She even described herself as "the surgeon" when asked. I applaud whoever did it, doubly so if it's a single word in Polish.

It is. (the female term: "Cyruliczka"). And truth be told, it sounds quite awesome used in that context.

[JUQ he/him]

I dunno, maybe it was just a word Brandon thought sounded good?

[cometaryorbit]

Yeah, the bloodletting surgeon thing probably fits. Bleeder sees herself as doing harm to bring a greater good, as I understand it.

Might also be a reference to blood in Hemalurgy.

[Shardlet he/him]

Totally agree with cometaryorbit.  Her intent is to fix or heal by doing harm to excise a problem.  Like chemo, it's bad bad stuff, but if it kills the cancer...