| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| damn, dam(’), damfool, dammit, damnable, damnation, damned, damnedest, damning, etc. |
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| The final -n is frequently dropped in eye dialect forms, such as dammit and dam-fool, because it isn’t pronounced (consider DAM, DAMD, and DAM-ing), but otherwise it is retained in spelling and pronounced in some compounds wherein the suffix would otherwise begin with a vowel, as in damnable (DAM-nuh-bul) and damnation (DAM-NAI-shuhn). Verb, noun, adjective, adverb, and interjection, damn in all its forms and compounds began as a very strong word meaning “to condemn or doom,” but its very high frequency of use has tamed it so that it is now a mild curse as an interjection and a weak intensifier as an adverb (a damned good golfer). As a noun (I don’t give a damn) it’s not very powerful these days, and in most circumstances as a verb it is no longer much stronger than the darn or darned sometimes used as a euphemism for it. Most free use of damn and its compounds and combinations is limited to Conversational English, but it does occur in its curse-related senses in Informal and Semiformal writing as well. And it is still fully Standard as a verb at all levels in its old, literal religious sense, “to condemn to eternal punishment.” | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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