Etymologically
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damp

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈdæmp/[1]
  • US: /ˈdæmp/, /ˈdeə̯mp/[1]

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
  • 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