A bit of fun word history
Common expressions in our language -- where did they come from?
Associated Content
takes a look at some of them:
The History of Some of Today's Most Common Phrases
Why Do We Say It? Looking at Several Phrases in the Light of Eighteenth-Century Canting
Some of our most common phrases were once thought to be low, vulgar and base. The rise of the criminal class as a vital piece of Elizabethan society prompted, among other things, the introduction of a new language. While the words remained English, the phraseology changed, and so did the meaning. Thus, a cove became a man rather than a secluded beach, flash meant the appearance of high society or wealth (a flash cove therefore was a rich man), and so on and so forth. But as time drew on, some of the phrases lost the stigma of criminal use and were accepted into the language of everyday people.
In 1785, etymologist Francis Grose produced The Vulgar Tongue, a dictionary of slang, sea-terms, thieves� cant and other less-savory phrases. His point, in doing so, was to educate those in higher society as to what some of the phrases heard at cock-fights and bear-baiting really meant. The result, however, is a wonderful snapshot in linguistic time, a resource unequalled in its richness and history. From his work we can draw the history of some of our most common phrases today.
Being interested in metal working and blacksmithing, the entry for Dam, give a Dam and Tinker's Dam was quite interesting:
I don�t give a dam
Originally, this was simply �I don�t give a dam,� but meant much the same as today. A dam was a coin minted in India by English businessmen. Comprised primarily of tin, it was next to worthless in the English gold-standard market and was generally ranked at a rate of half a farthing, or approximately one-quarter of a cent. The coin was so worthless that it could acquired by the sack full by English tinkers, who then used the coins to rectify small errors, similar to the shim stock of today. Thus, anything for which a person would not part with a dam, or a tinker�s dam, was completely worthless. Our version probably originated as the Indian coin was phased out and the ejaculation �Damnation!� came into vogue, replacing the less formal �Damme!�
Fun stuff!
Posted by DaveH at October 26, 2008 6:21 PM