damp

Etymology

The noun, from which the verb and the adjective were formed,^[2][3][4] is probably borrowed from Middle Low German damp (“vapour, steam, smoke”),^{[2][5][6][7][8]} and the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster also point to Middle Dutch damp (“vapour”).^[9][10] The OED calls its origin uncertain: the word is not recorded in the earlier stages of the related languages, and it finds it hard to believe that it came down from Old English without being written;^[3] Etymonline and Barnhart allow for an unrecorded Old English *damp.^[2][4] Related forms are Old High German damph (“vapour, steam”), German Dampf, Dutch damp, Danish damp, Icelandic dampr (“steam”) and Swedish damb (“dust”),^[3][4][11] and Old Norse dampi (“dust”).^[2][11] They go back to Proto-Germanic *dampaz,^{[2][4][12][13]} which Orel and Barnhart connect with Middle High German dimpfen (“to steam, smoke”);^[13][4] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *dhem-b-, and Orel compares Lithuanian dùmpti (“to blow”).^[4][13] Klein relates the word to dim.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A noxious vapour in a coal mine, choke-damp or firedamp: 1316, in a Latin record from the Middleton manuscripts that speaks of ventum qui vocatur le dampe, the wind that is called the damp.^[14][4][8] The OED's first record is in Caxton's Chronicles of England (1480), in the general sense of a noxious exhalation.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ayto describes the first line of development as "noxious exhalation", which could be gas or smoke as well as vapour.^[5] From this came the verb's first sense, to suffocate, in the late 14th century,^[2][4] and the senses stupor (1542–1712) and dejection (from 1606), as if caused by such fumes;^[3] the adjective first meant dazed or stupefied (1590),^[4][10][2] as in Milton's "with looks downcast and damp" (1667).^[5][3] The figurative verb, to check or discourage a person's spirits or zeal, is recorded from 1548, in Udall's translation of Erasmus.^[3][4][2] In the 17th century the noun was used more and more of visible, wet vapour, fog or mist (from Shakespeare's All's Well), and of moisture,^[5][3][15] and the senses "moisture" and "slightly wet" are firmly recorded from 1706, in Phillips's dictionary;^[3][2][4] the verb "to moisten" dates from 1671.^[3][4] Johnson (1755) gave the adjective the senses moist and dejected.^[16] The old sense survives in miners' words such as firedamp and chokedamp.^[15][8][3] Later uses include the slang damp, a drink (Dickens, Pickwick Papers, 1837),^[3][17] damp meaning tipsy in American and Australian slang (1818),^[17] the technical verb senses in acoustics (1840) and magnetism (1879), and damp down a fire (1869).^[3] The damp squib, a firework that fails to go off, became a figure for a disappointing event in the mid-19th century.^[15]

Timeline

• 1316 – noun, noxious vapour in a coal mine.^[14][4]
• late 14th century – verb, to suffocate.^[2][4]
• 1480 – a noxious exhalation.^[3]
• 1542 – a dazed state, stupor (obsolete by 1712).^[3]
• 1548 – verb, to depress or discourage.^[3][4]
• 1584 – a check, discouragement.^[3]
• 1590 – adjective, dazed, stupefied.^[4][10]
• 1606 – dejection.^[3]
• 1671 – verb, to moisten.^[3][4]
• 1706 – noun, moisture; adjective, slightly wet.^[3][4]
• 1837 – slang, a drink.^[3][17]
• 1840 – to stop vibrations; of plants, to damp off.^[3]
• 1869 – to damp down a fire.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Slightly wet; moist: Hang the damp towels on the line.^[18][10][3]
2. (archaic) Dejected or depressed; also dazed, stupefied.^[18][10][3]

Noun

1. Slight wetness; moisture or humidity: The damp had got into the cellar walls.^[18][10][3]
2. Foul or poisonous gas, especially in a coal mine; see firedamp.^[18][10][3]
3. A check or discouragement.^[18][3]
4. (archaic) Dejection.^[18][3]
5. (obsolete, 1542–1712) A dazed state; stupor.^[10][3]

Verb

1. To make slightly wet; to moisten.^[18][3]
2. To stifle or deaden; to make less strong or lively: The bad news damped their enthusiasm.^[18][10][3]
3. damp down: to cover a fire with ashes or small coal so that it burns slowly.^[18][10][3]
4. In physics and music, to reduce or stop the vibrations or oscillations of something.^[18][3]
5. damp off: of seedlings, to rot and die from damp.^[3]

Word family

• dampish
• damply
• dampness
• dampishly
• dampishness
• damp-dry
• dampen
• afterdamp

Related words

• dim
• dumps
• dank
• firedamp

Usage notes

Although damp and dank look alike, both are Germanic in origin and were not originally connected.^[15] The Century Dictionary (1897) noted that dampen was then the more common verb in the literal sense,^[2] while Barnhart describes dampen as a surviving Middle English form of the verb.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ 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 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b 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)
15. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins