darn (1781)

1700S, EUPHEMISM, EXPRESSION, PENNSYLVANIA

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In this year we get darn (1781) as a milder form of damn. Interestingly, the other form of darn, ‘to mend’, originates from dern around 1600 and meant ‘secret, to conceal, hidden’. This is roughly what was being done by the need for this particular euphemism darn from being exposed in public.

The reason for this is that public swearing was still a criminal offence at this point, as described in the first recorded entry in English for darn for damn in the Pennsylvania Journal that year:

“In New England prophane swearing is … so far from polite as to be criminal, and many use substitutions such as darn it for d—n it.”

The word, being colloquial, did not feature in Webster’s original American dictionary. Only the haberdashery term featured.

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