Answer: Damped vs. Tamped

[momebie.livejournal.com]

From china_shop: Which is correct: "he tamped down his excitement" or "he damped down his excitement"?

With examples from Harry Potter, The Mighty Boosh, and Death Note...

The short answer to your question is that, strictly speaking, neither of those examples is incorrect. To get a better understanding of the tone that each choice lends to the sentence, however, it would benefit us to look a little closer.

To know when to best use tamped vs. damped, it will help to first look at their root words and what they mean.

Tamp
1.to drive in or down by a succession of light or medium blows
2.to put a check on (tamp down rumours)

When the word 'tamp' is used, it suggests some amount of time spent on containment, or effort tried.

Damp
1a: to affect with or as if with a noxious gas (choke)
b: to diminish the activity or intensity of
c: to check the vibration or oscillation of (as a string or voltage)

When the word 'damp' is used, it speaks to effect. I will note that, in doing my research, I came across 'damped' used most commonly in the context of scientific physical research. Even when you're not speaking about physics though, the mention of oscillation and vibration adds an interesting dimension to the word choice.

Tamp and damp are both transitive verbs, meaning that they require you to use not only the verb, but one or more objects as well. Some examples of this in the past tense are:

Harry tamped the tent pegs into the cold, hard ground, while Ron unrolled the canvas to stretch across them.

Vince tamped down the rumours that he was Howard's wife by telling people that Howard did his hair and made his tea.

Mello tamped down the thrill his proximity to Matt gave him by thinking of things that had pissed him off that day.

Techno Mouse seemed damped by the smoke from Naboo's hookah, but a few minutes in the ambient hutch cleared his lungs and lightened his limbs.

As annoying as Matt could find Mello, it was his presence alone that damped the stress and seeming vibration of the room around him.

One has to be careful, however, when using 'damped'. Sometimes people use it when what they really mean is 'dampened'. To borrow from Paul Brians:
"When the vibration of a wheel is reduced it is damped, but when you drive through a puddle your tire is dampened. “Dampened” always has to do with wetting, if only metaphorically: “The announcement that Bob’s parents were staying home after all dampened the spirits of the party-goers.” The parents are being a wet blanket."

Therefore:

Ron's spirits were dampened by Hermione's tirade, but they couldn't be completely destroyed.

There is not a large amount of difference in 'tamp' vs. 'damp', but when used for a purpose similar to the one in the suggestion it is really a choice between 'tamp' or 'dampen'. Just remember the tent peg and the wet blanket and you should be alright.

Comments

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

You have a Moss icon! *squee* I have nothing useful to add.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Richard Ayoade is made of awesome. <3

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

Okay, I love that icon, and must go watch that episode again immediately.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Go, go! It's my second favorite one, after The Red Door. I've seen them both more times than I can remember.

[china_shop]

Thanks so much for this but I'm still a little confused.

when used for a purpose similar to the one in the suggestion it is really a choice between 'tamp' or 'dampen'.

So does that mean my original example -- "he damped down his excitement" -- is incorrect, and should be "he dampened down his excitement"? You said at the beginning that neither option was invalid, strictly speaking. *wrinkles forehead*

My Concise OED gives this definition of "damp" (as opposed to "dampen"): control or restrain (a feeling or a situation) (along with a couple of more scientific definitions), whereas for "tamp" the options are 1. pack (a blast hole) full of clay or sand to concentrate the force of the explosion. 2. firmly ram or pack (a substance) down or into something. And that's it. So I tend to think that the one that mentions feelings in the definitions would be more correct...

But I'm a Kiwi, and I don't know if the US has different usages for these words?

(The reason this came up in the first place is that I wrote a fic in which one of the characters "had been trying to keep [his love for another] damped down", and several people commented on that specific line but misquoted it as "tamped down", which made me wonder if they were subtly correcting me. :-) )

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

This is one of those cases where I'd avoid making the choice, and find a third word, because even if you're right, half your readers will get distracted wondering if it's right, and that takes them right out of the story.

[china_shop]

*nodnod* Thanks for the advice. :-)

[momebie.livejournal.com]

From what I could find in my searches, it seems to be a difference of imagery. Most instances of the word damped are used when referring to physics problems, leading me to believe that when something is damped, it is most likely stopped from vibrating or oscillating. If his excitement were something that had him say, shaking like Techno Mouse, then it would be damped when he came to rest. If he tamped his emotion he would have kept it in check by beating it back, meaning that it hadn't been a simple thing to keep down.

I found my definitions of words at m-w.com and the one for tamp includes that bit about putting check on intangible things like rumours, so I believe that other intangibles could be used in that way as well. It might be a question of dialect too, where if most of the readers who brought up the question lived in one area of the world and you lived in another, but I'm not sure since I don't have that information. :)

[china_shop]

Heh. I had been hoping for a simple, cut-and-dried solution. (/rueful) But thank you so much for taking the time to look into it. Much appreciated. :-)

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Simply? My gut reaction would have been to use dampen instead of tamp or damp, but that's just personal. ;)

[china_shop]

I should probably have gone with "hidden". *g*