Answer: damn vs. dam

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

Question: What is the difference between "damn" and "dam"?

With examples from Stargate: SG1.

Did you ever hear the story about the engineer who dies and goes to hell?

I'm not going to tell you the joke, though if you're really interested you can go and read it here, but it is the first thing which came to mind when I saw this question -- I could just imagine the engineer who had been damned building a big dam and various other conveniences to make things more liveable "down under", as it were. And while it is a joke, this thought does provide a simple example of the differences between the two similar words.

In our most common usage today, a dam is body of water confined by a barrier, or a form of barrier preventing the flow of water, or something more solid like sand, dirt, or snow. Dams exist all over the world and are used for things like hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, storing drinking water, or all of the above. In this sense, dam is a noun. An example of this form of dam is:

Teal'c stared up at the immensity of the Hoover Dam.

Dam can also be used as a transitive verb to describe the process of restraining the flow of water. For example:

"If we use some C4 below that ledge, we'll be able to bring it down and dam the river, flooding the Goa'uld stronghold."

By contrast, damn is all about condemning someone or something, most particularly condemning to hell. In this sense it can also be a curse word. The following demonstrates that usage by one of Jack O'Neill's many enemies:

"Damn you, O'Neill! You'll pay for your temerity one day!"

You can also use damn as an adjective or adverb. Uncle George does that here:

"These Replicators are a damned nuisance, Jack. Isn't there any way to permanently destroy them?"

The last usage of damn is as a noun, where it generally means a very small amount. Just about everyone has heard of this, most famous, and certainly not Stargate: SG1 related, example:

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Hopefully that helps clarify the usage of these two similar words with quite different meanings. I'm now going to go and see whether my boss still gives a damn about the report he wanted completed last week.

Sources
Definitions are from Merriam-Webster OnLine

Comments

[mistress-tien.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing!

I love to see a new post here...I love it when it's a subject I don't know and I love it when it's a subject I already understand. You guys (as in the collective that writes for fandom_grammar) do a great job of finding examples and clarifying when to use which word.

Please keep up the good work!

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. So far as I can tell, we all enjoy very much the ideas around grammar, and are happier still when people read and enjoy these.

[5herlock.livejournal.com]

I was taught that the actual proper phrase would be "don't give a dam" - dam as in a tinker's dam (something small and insignificant, as you said). 'Damn' doesn't make sense there if you're thinking about as a contraction of "condemn". But it's one of those things that has been written so frequently the 'wrong' way that the wrong way has become the accepted, correct way.

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of that version before, but several sources claim that "tinker's dam" is a folk etymology, and that the original phrase was likely "tinker's damn" in a reference to the coarse manners of tinkers (citing the prior existence of the phrase tinker's curse). Convoluted stuff!

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

I think you and I found some of the same sites. :)

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

There appears to be some contention as to whether the expression is "tinker's dam" or "tinker's damn", because there is a much older expression "tinker's cuss" which I think was first recorded in the 1820s, and is an expression I remember hearing a long time ago. It's also something which was recorded earlier than "tinker's dam", and it seems more logical that "I don't give a tinker's cuss" migrated to "I don't give a tinker's damn", because "cuss" and "damn" are both related to curse words - and apparently tinkers were known for their extensive vocabulary when it came to swearing. Most of what I found online also suggests that "tinker's dam" was really just a little polishing of the older expression "tinker's damn" to make it sound a touch more appealing.

Additionally, what I've read suggests that "not worth a damn" is a much older expression anyway. And if you think about the expression, what it probably means is that it's not worth the energy to condemn someone, hence they're "not worth a condemnation", so I think that it does make sense used in that way.

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

I mentioned somewhere in here that a tinker's dam is a small metal well in which solder is kept while the tinker is, well, tinkering, fixing pots and pans. It is a small insignificant thing though. I think, though I could be wrong, that tinker's DAMN is a changing of the older DAM, since most people don't really know what a tinker is, let alone a tinker's dam.

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

While I have read about the "tinker's dam" being some clay they used as a well around solder, I've also read that this seems much more likely to be a folk tale made up to support a change in spelling, as the first recorded usage of "tinker's dam" is from the 1870s, while "tinker's damn" is first recorded in the 1820s, and "tinker's cuss" before that. So consensus seems to suggest that it's actually the other way around - tinker's DAM is a changing of the older tinker's DAMN.

At least that's what I've been able to find in doing some searching online. :)

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Oooooooo, there are so many other definitions for both those words.

Dam: a female parent of many mammals -- a horse has a sire and a dam. Or how about "dam" in I don't give a tinker's dam. Now one can find it spelled both ways, but it certainly should be "dam," since it's a small well of metal to hold in solder for a tinker. It dams it up -- holds it back.

Damn: can mean to assign something to be of little worth -- to damn something with faint praise.

And these are just a few examples. Words are so rich in variety of meaning, that access to the "OED" is a wonderful thing. Look at the word flag: a stone, a flower, the tail of a species of deer, a pennant, to lessen, to wave for attention, and on and on. This is why the thesaurus is such a dangerous book. For the uninitiated, when picking a word to fill the spot of another, it's far too easy to pick amiss. Context is huge!

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

Yup, there are a lot of other definitions for "dam", though I didn't mention them as I tried to focus on definitions that are likely to crop up in fan fiction - which is where the "fandom" in fandom_grammar comes from. I know it may not cover everything, but without making it into a dictionary entry, I'm not sure how I could really do that.

And I did check my Complete Oxford English Dictionary, and definition fourth definition of tinker as a noun is "d. not to care, be worth, (etc.), a tinker's curse, cuss, or damn, (ellipt.) a tinker's" The only reference to "tinker's dam" is from 1877 in Knight's Dictionary of Mechanics, and the earlier references from 1824 are "tinker's curse", "tinker's damn" is mentioned by Thoreau in 1839, and "tinker's cuss" in 1865.

I tried to cover the "something of little worth" with the "I don't give a damn" example, but there is also "damning with faint praise" - though that's not exactly a common expression these days any more.

You're very right about getting loose with the OED and thesaurus, because you can make a decent story unintelligible. I've seen a published author comment about that, but can't think where at the moment. If I remember, I'll point out the reference.

Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. :)

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Words are my obsession. and it started when I was young. Being nosy, when I'd see a word I didn't know, I looked it up and remembered it. Majoring in literature and reading a lot of very old works helped too. Interesting that the SAT has been dumbed down by eliminating 2 or the former 3 sections on vocabulary. Antonyms and analogies are gone, leaving only sentence completions. Lackaday, I must thole it.

[jedishampoo.livejournal.com]

I'm especially glad to see the "ed" in the adjectival form. :) Thank you!

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

One of the other grammarians made sure that they picked up on that one for me, because I had it wrong myself. So glad you like it. :D

[starwatcher]

.
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

For some reason, this makes my muse want to kick over the traces. There must be some way to write a story - probably something in a Stargate universe - where someone literally doesn't give a dam. Like, some technologically advanced civilization flies in ready-made dams and plunks them down in small rivers for a community. But a particular, hard-nosed conqueror was pissed off at a certain community, and refused to give them a dam...

I must be tired; I get very silly on lack of sleep.
.

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

Or else "dam" turns out to be some Jaffa or Goa'uld word meaning something else entirely. Or even a word used by a different race again.

But yes, I can see the silliness there, but it does make for an amusing story. :)