[miss marmelstein]

OK...I’ll bite...what the heck does it mean? I’m from NYC.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

It’s a preface used for: “What I’m about to say is meant as an insult.”

[turfmann]

I’m from Boston and I get the impression that if we said the northern equivalent to each other in a bar up here there would be fisticuffs. ;)

[Ditto]

Phrasal Verb:
buck up
To summon one’s courage or spirits; hearten: “My friends tried to buck me up after I lost the contest.”

[onyx]

I’m a Southern California transplant to the deep South, but within the social circles I travel, the phrase “bless her/his heart” is the preface to a brilliant lashing/trashing of someone or the ending phrase of the brilliant lashing/trashing of the same person.

[silverleaf]

“Bless his/her heart” is a real sweet way of putting down someone because it truly means the opposite (ie, he/she is an idiot)-

used by GRITS (girls raised in the south)- but it has spread beyond regional use

I believe almost all women “get it” that “Bless His Heart” means “He is an idiot and we are smiling as we insult him"