[Ads-l] Help with the f-word and parts of speech

[Laurence Horn]

> On Feb 25, 2020, at 2:42 PM, Bill Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
>> 
> 
>> Except "damned if I don't" can be traced back to "I'll be damned *[figuratively,
> 
>> not at all near the literal sense]* if I don't".
> 
>> 
> 
>> MAM
> 
>> 
> 
> . . . which is how I parsed it in the oinitial post.
> 
> 
I assume a kinship between 
Damn (me) if I don’t
(I’ll be) damned if I don’t

Similarly, “Fuck if I know” might have originated as

(I’ll be) fucked if I know

And other conditionals with blatantly false antecedents, leading to a reductio:

If ___, {I’m a monkey’s uncle/I’ll eat my hat}

Different grammar, but similar rhetorical force

LH

P. S.  I love how the OED entry for “damned” still has 

4a. Used profanely as a strong expression of reprehension or dislike, or as a mere intensive. Now usually printed ‘d——d’. In the southern U.S., a common epithet prefixed to Yankee.

—whence, presumably, “deuced” by those who weren’t sure how to fill in the blanks. ;-)

As the OED concedes,
"This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894)."

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