damnation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dampnacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman dampnatiun, also dampnation,^[5][6] and directly borrowed from Latin damnātiō (“condemnation in a court; adverse judgement”).^[6][3] The Latin noun is formed from damnāt-, the past participial stem of damnō (“to doom, condemn”),^[6][3][7] which is from damnum (“harm, loss”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Condemnation to eternal punishment after death: about 1330, in the Speculum Guy.^[6] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The classical Latin noun was a term of the law courts; the sense of eternal punishment appears in post-classical Latin in the late 2nd century, in Tertullian.^[6] The French word had the religious sense about 1150, before the judicial one in the late 13th century,^[6] and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary's earliest record is from 1136–65.^[5] English took over both: the theological sense about 1330, a sin that deserves such punishment about 1350, and a judicial sentence in the Wycliffite Bible of about 1384.^[6] Chaucer used the word seven times and Gower once.^[10] Johnson (1755) knew it as exclusion from divine mercy and condemnation to eternal punishment.^[11] The word also became an oath: Etymonline dates the imprecation to about 1600, and the OED has it from 1613 and the interjection in Othello.^[3][6] From 1701 it also meant condemnation by public disapproval, frequently of an author or a literary work.^[6][7] From 1832 it could mean the cause of a person's or a group's downfall, without any religious sense.^[6] Colloquial use as an intensifier followed: the adverb from 1756 and the adjective from 1820.^[6][7] In a Roman law translation of 1870 it also names a form of legacy, after the Latin use for an heir's obligation under a will.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – condemnation to eternal punishment.^[6]
• c. 1350 – a sin that deserves such punishment.^[6]
• c. 1384 – condemnation by judicial sentence.^[6]
• 1613 – used in imprecations and expressions of irritation.^[6]
• before 1616 – interjection, in Shakespeare's Othello.^[6]
• 1701 – condemnation by publicly expressed disapproval.^[6]
• 1710 – an oath;^[6] to drink damnation, to toast someone's ruin.^[6]
• 1756 – adverb, utterly.^[6]
• 1820 – adjective, awful.^[6]
• 1832 – the cause of a person's or a group's downfall.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of damning, or the state of being damned.^[12][13][4]
2. Condemnation to everlasting punishment after death, or that punishment itself; perdition.^[12][4][6]
3. Something that brings such condemnation, or more loosely a person's or a group's ruin.^[13][4][6]
4. Failure or ruin caused by hostile criticism.^[12][6]
5. (rare) Condemnation by a court; a judicial sentence.^[6][7]

Interjection

1. An exclamation of anger, annoyance or disappointment.^[12][13][6]

Adjective

1. (colloquial) Awful, terrible.^[6][7]

Adverb

1. (colloquial) Absolutely, utterly.^[6][7]

Word family

• nondamnation
• predamnation

Related words

• damn
• damned
• condemn
• condemnation
• demnition

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins