- darn
[darn 词源字典] - darn: English has two distinct words darn. The verb ‘mend with stitches’ [16] may come ultimately from an Old English verb diernan ‘hide’, a derivative of the adjective dierne ‘secret’, which in turn was descended from West Germanic *darnjaz. Darn the mild curse [18], which arose in American English, is usually taken to be a euphemistic alteration of damn, although it has been suggested, not very plausibly, that it too came from dern, the modern English descendant of Old English dierne, in the sense ‘dark, dreary’.
[darn etymology, darn origin, 英语词源] - darn (v.)
- "to mend" c. 1600, perhaps from Middle French darner "mend," from darne "piece," from Breton darn "piece, fragment, part." Alternative etymology is from obsolete dern (see dern). Related: Darned; darning.
- darn (interj.)
- tame curse word, 1781, American English euphemism for damn, said to have originated in New England when swearing was a punishable offense; if so, its spread was probably influenced by 'tarnal, short for Eternal, as in By the Eternal (God), favorite exclamation of Andrew Jackson, among others (see tarnation). Related: darned (past participle adjective, 1806); darndest (superlative, 1844).
