Is the word damn a swear

Your confusion likely comes from seeing all three of these words used as expletives. When someone is upset, they might say any of these three words, and yet Damn is considered very offensive, while the other two are considered less so. (Darn and Dang are still never used in formal English)

This is because Damn is considered a swear word in English, for historical and religious reasons (as SamBC mentioned earlier). When you want to say a swear word, but don’t want to be offensive, people create «Minced Oaths». A minced oath is created by changing one or more sounds of the swear word, but not so much that a native speaker can’t tell that it’s been changed. The words are similar enough that the intent is conveyed without actually saying the offensive word in question.

English has many swear words. English has many MORE minced oaths in order to avoid saying the swear word. For any given swear word, there is likely at least one, if not dozens of minced oath versions of that swear word.

What makes a word a swear word? Culture. Typically religious taboos and gross violations of social norms. Swear words vary from language to language and culture to culture, and even within a single language you might find some regions consider a word more or less offensive than another region. (For instance, Cunt is considered extremely and excessively offensive in America, to the point where it’s almost never used even by coarser types of people, while in England and Australia it might be considered a mild swear at worst, or even simply a casual word causing no offense outside of formal situations)

What makes a minced oath acceptable? The fact that it is not the original word. That said, be careful of your audience, as SOME groups and individuals consider some minced oaths to be as bad as the original swear. For example, if someone is offended by the use of Jesus as a swear, Jeebus (a minced version) may still be offensive, yet Jiminy Cricket (a slightly archaic minced version of the same) could be acceptable.

What makes a minced oath understandable? The fact that it sounds similar to the original word without sounding more similar to any other word. (This is why typically only native speakers can make new minced oaths… your working vocabulary has to be large enough to know that your minced oath isn’t more similar to a different word instead)

Asked by: Miss Lizzie Grant III

Score: 4.5/5
(47 votes)

3 Answers. This is because Damn is considered a swear word in English, for historical and religious reasons (as SamBC mentioned earlier). When you want to say a swear word, but don’t want to be offensive, people create «Minced Oaths».

Why is damn a curse word?

In the early 17th century, according to OED citations, “damn” showed up as a noun used “as a profane imprecation”—that is, a curse. … And here’s an early 18th-century example in the OED: “What! he no hear you swear, curse, speak the great Damn.” From The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719), by Daniel Defoe.

How is dammit a bad word?

to use the word “damn”; swear. (used as an expletive to express anger, annoyance, disgust, etc.)

Is Frick a bad word?

Frick isn’t a swear word. I know there are certain individuals who think c r a p is a swear word (even though it really isn’t), but “frick” isn’t a swear word by any sense of the meaning of “swear word”. No one is going to get offended by someone saying “frick”.

Is Bloody a curse word?

Bloody is a common swear word that is considered to be milder and less offensive than other, more visceral alternatives. In 1994, it was the most commonly spoken swear word, accounting for around 650 of every million words said in the UK – 0.064 per cent.

31 related questions found

Q: What is the origin of the expression “don’t give a damn”? Was it ever expletive free?

A: Let’s begin with “damn.” When the word showed up in Middle English in the 14th century, “damn” was a verb meaning to condemn. It wasn’t until the 16th century that “damn” was used profanely.

English borrowed the term from Old French, but the ultimate source is the classical Latin damnāre or dampnāre, meaning to damage or condemn. (In fact, “condemn” ultimately comes from the same Latin source as “damn.”)

In Middle English, according to Oxford English Dictionary citations, “damn” had three related meanings: (1) to doom to eternal punishment; (2) to pronounce a sentence; (3) to denounce or deplore.

Here’s an OED example for sense #1 from a homily dated at around 1325: “Sain Jon hafd gret pite / That slic a child suld dampned be” (“John the Baptist had great pity / That such a child should be damned”). Collected in English Metrical Homilies (1862), edited by John Small.

We’ve expanded this OED’s citation for sense #2: “For, sir, hit is no maystrie for a lord / To dampne a man with-oute answere of word” (“For, sire, it is no triumph for a lord / To condemn a man without answering a word”). The Legend of Good Women, circa 1385, by Geoffrey Chaucer.

And here’s an example for #3: “For hadde God comaundid maydenhede, / Than had he dampnyd weddyng with the dede” (The Wife of Bath’s Prologue in The Canterbury Tales, circa 1386, by Chaucer).

The OED says the verb “damn” began to be “used profanely” in the late 16th century “in imprecations and exclamations, expressing emphatic objurgation or reprehension of a person or thing, or sometimes merely an outburst of irritation or impatience.”

The dictionary’s earliest example is from an anonymous religious tract attacking critics of the Anglican hierarchy: “Hang a spawne? drowne it; alls one, damne it!” From Pappe With Hatchet (1589), believed written by John Lyly or Thomas Nashe.

In the early 17th century, according to OED citations, “damn” showed up as a noun used “as a profane imprecation”—that is, a curse.

The earliest example is from Monsieur Thomas, a comedy by the English playwright John Fletcher, believed written between 1610 and 1616: “Rack a maids tender eares, with dam’s and divels?”

And here’s an early 18th-century example in the OED: “What! he no hear you swear, curse, speak the great Damn.” From The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719), by Daniel Defoe.

But by the mid-18th century—and here’s where your question comes in—the profane sense of “damn” began weakening as it was “used vaguely (in unconventional speech) in phrases not worth a damn, not to care a damn, not to give a damn,” the OED says.

The earliest such phrase, according to the dictionary, is of the “not to care a damn” variety. Here’s the first known use:

“Not that I care three dams what figure I may cut.” From Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World (1762), a novel in the form of letters purportedly written by a Chinese traveler and offering an outsider’s views of Britain.

In searches of old newspaper databases, the earliest example we’ve found for “not give a damn” is from a late 18th-century American newspaper:

“Burk … exclaimed, that he believed it was true, and if so that he would not give a damn for the Federal villains in this country.” From the Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, July 6, 1798.

As for “not worth a damn,” the earliest use we know of is cited in Green’s Dictionary of Slang: “To play second fiddle to Brougham … would not be worth a dam.” From a letter written by the English politician Thomas Creevey on Oct. 18, 1812.

Interestingly, the noun “curse” was once used in similar constructions. Here are the earliest known appearances—at least in Modern English—of the corresponding “curse” expressions, all cited in the OED:

“I do not conceive that any thing can happen … which you would give a curse to know” (in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 20, 1763).

“For, as to wives, a Grand Signor Need never care one curse about them!” (Thomas Moore’s Intercepted Letters, 1813).

“The Chapter on Naval Inventions is not worth a curse” (Blackwood’s Magazine, 1826).

Oxford says the use of “curse” in such expressions “possibly comes down from the Middle English not worth a kerse, kers, cres” (those are medieval spellings of “curse”). The Middle English usage dates from the late 1300s, according to Oxford citations.

But if there is a link between “not worth a curse” and the medieval “not worth a kerse,” it’s not traceable. As the dictionary adds, “historical connection between the two is not evidenced, there being an interval of more than 300 years between the examples of the Middle English and the modern phrase.”

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Of course, damn is a bad word.  It’s not the worst of the profane words, but most people wouldn’t want to say it in public.  It’s four letters, which is a sign that it’s a bad word, and it means that you’re cursing somebody or something to Hell.  Hell is also thought of as profanity (though I disagree), and when a bad word implies another bad word, then it’s really a bad word.

For one thing, it’s pretty bad to curse somebody to Hell.  Hell is a horrible place to go, and it’s for eternity, so that should be reserved for only a select few.  If people said damn occasionally, then I wouldn’t be so concerned.  But people damn each other for stuff like minor road infractions, and I don’t think anybody should suffer eternal damnation in Hell just because of a rude traffic incident.

Putting God in front of damn is the worst of the worst of profanity.  I haven’t ranked profanity from worst to least offensive, but God in front of damn would be in the top one or two.  It’s one thing to damn somebody yourself, but when you invoke God to damn somebody, that’s serious.  I’ve done it a few times in my life, and I’ve always regretted it, and I’ve always privately asked the higher power not to take my earlier request literally.  I think God understands.  If not, a bunch of people are screwed.

It’s okay to damn inanimate objects.  If I stub my toe on a table or hammer a nail into my thumb, it’s okay to damn the table or hammer or nail.  They’re nonliving things, so they don’t care.

If a table ends up in Hell for eternity, the table doesn’t care.  Maybe the tortured souls down there need tables, nails, and hammers too.  Maybe part of their eternal torture is to stub their toes and hammer nails into their thumbs for all of eternity.

What do you say in Hell when you stub your toes or nail a finger?  If you say “Damn!” or “Dammit,” it’s too late because everything down there is damned already.  It’s probably too late to say “Heaven help me.”  Then again, some religions say it’s never too late for “Heaven help me.”  I hope I don’t need to find out.

Damn isn’t the most fun of the curse words to say, but it has some fun variations.  Damnation is fun.  Dammit is fun to say quickly.  A junior high teacher years ago used to say “Hot diggety damn!” whenever he got excited, and that was fun, but I never did that in public.

Decades ago, some of my friends pronounced damn with two syllables so that it came out “day-um.”  That usually meant that they were impressed with something.  They could also do that with “shee-it.”  Extending a four-letter swear word into two syllables is the best.

It’s easy to replace damn with a fake word that doesn’t bother anybody.  It’s okay if you say “Darn it!” or “Dang it!” in public.  You can even halfway invoke God by saying “Dagnabbit!” or “Goshdurnit” or “Guldernit.”  Oddly enough, I’ve never heard anybody say “Durnit!” or “Nabbit!” by themselves.  Maybe I was born a generation late for that.

Like most bad words, damn has been around longer than most people think.  According to the dictionary, the first usage of damn can be found in the 13^th century, and its Latin roots go much further than that.  I’d guess that when you consider Latin roots, damn and Hell are the oldest of the English swear words.

Even though it’s not as bad as a lot of swear words, I wouldn’t say damn in front of my parents, at least, not without the word Hoover in front of it.  When I was a kid, I was willing to take a chance with hell or crap or even b*tch, but not damn.  If you’re a kid, don’t do it.  It just isn’t worth the risk.