darn

darn¹ mend with thread

Etymology

The verb meaning to mend is of unknown origin, according to the OED and Etymonline.^[2][3] The OED notes that its form suggests a link with the obsolete dern, secret, and its verb, to conceal or put out of sight, but that no connecting links have been found.^[2] Hoad, the Oxford Dictionary of English, the Shorter Oxford, Skeat and Weekley take it as probably a special use of this verb,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} inherited from Middle English dernen (“to keep secret, conceal”),^[9][7] inherited from Old English dernan, the Anglian form of diernan and dyrnan.^[10][9] The Old English verb is a derivative of the adjective dierne (“secret”),^[11] from Proto-West Germanic *darnjaz,^[11] and is cognate with Old Saxon dernian and Old High German tarnen.^[12][13] Hoad, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford compare Middle Dutch dernen (“to stop holes in a dike”).^[4][5][6] Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and Collins instead derive the verb from Norman darner (“to darn, mend, patch”), a dialect word of the Channel Islands,^[14][15][16] perhaps from darne (“piece”), from Breton darn (“piece”),^[15][14][17] which is related to Welsh darn (“piece, fragment”).^[14][16] The OED rejects this Celtic origin: the Welsh word has nothing to do with mending, and darnio hosan would mean to cut a stocking to pieces.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To mend clothes, especially stockings, by filling in a hole with yarn or thread interwoven into a kind of texture: about 1600, in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth.^[2][3][15]

Semantic evolution

The OED remarks that the verb appears about 1600 and is at once quite common, perhaps because this way of repairing a hole was then new.^[2] Johnson (1755) had it as "to mend holes by imitating the texture of the stuff", quoting Gay and Swift.^[18] The noun, a darned place or the act of darning, followed in 1720.^[2][14][15] The verb was extended to mending a hole in a wall or road by filling it in (1801), to threading one's way between obstacles (1890) and to embroidering with darning stitch (1882).^[2] In Aberdeen dialect it meant to patch or fill up any hole, not only in clothing, and in Dublin to darn the streets was to walk a zigzag course like a drunk man.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1600 – to mend a hole in clothing with interwoven thread.^[2][15]
• 1720 – noun, a darned place; the act of darning.^[2][15]
• 1801 – to mend a hole in a wall or road by filling it in.^[2]
• 1882 – to embroider with darning stitch.^[2]
• 1890 – to thread one's way between obstacles.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mend a hole or tear in cloth by weaving yarn or thread across it in crossing stitches: He darned the elbows of his old cardigan.^[16][15][2]
2. To embroider with darning stitch, filling in a pattern with rows of running stitches.^[15][2]

Noun

1. A place that has been darned: a sock full of darns.^[15][16][2]
2. The act of darning.^[16][2]

Word family

• darner
• undarned
• redarn

darn² mild curse

Etymology

The mild curse is a euphemistic alteration of damn,^{[2][3][15][6][8]} first recorded in American English in 1781.^[3][14] Barnhart and Etymonline think its spread was probably helped by tarnal, a shortened form of eternal.^[14][3] Etymonline reports that it is said to have arisen in New England, when swearing was punishable.^[3] Hoad notes that the earliest use is the intensive adverb, which Noah Webster identified with the old dern, concealed, later dark or dreary, as in “dern and dismal”, which presumably became “darn dismal”;^[4] Ayto finds this derivation not very plausible.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb in profane use, "confound": 1781, in the Pennsylvania Journal.^[2][15]

Semantic evolution

In 1789 Noah Webster wrote that the word, pronounced darn, was common in New England as an adverb qualifying an adjective, "very".^[20][2] The adjective, "confounded", is recorded from 1835 in the OED,^[2] and darned from 1806 as an adverb and 1815 as an adjective.^[14] The noun, in by darn and not give a darn, followed in 1840.^[2][15] Etymonline quotes Mark Twain (1865), who spelled it dern, as calling it a favourite curse in the ranching districts and one used in the society of ladies.^[3] By the late 19th century it was in general dialect and colloquial use in Scotland, England and America, in Berkshire in the form dern.^[19] The forms darnation (1798) and darndest (1844) followed.^[3]

Timeline

• 1781 – verb, to damn, confound.^[2][15][14]
• 1789 – adverb, extremely, in Noah Webster.^[2][20]
• 1798 – darnation.^[3]
• 1806 – darned, adverb, extremely.^[14]
• 1835 – adjective, confounded.^[2]
• 1840 – noun, in by darn, not give a darn.^[2][15]

Meanings

Verb

1. A milder word for damn, used in curses, as in darn it and I'll be darned.^[15][6][2]

Adjective

1. Damned; used for emphasis or annoyance: The darn printer has jammed again.^[15][6][2]

Adverb

1. Very or extremely: That was darn close.^[15][2][20]

Noun

1. give a darn: to care at all, usually in the negative: They don't give a darn about the rules.^[15][2]

Interjection

1. An exclamation of irritation or disappointment.^[3][15]

Word family

• darned
• darnation