blamed

[Baker, John]

I recall "blamed" as being common in this sense in my childhood in rural Kentucky, though I don't recall hearing it much in Massachusetts or Maryland, where I have lived as an adult.  There was one Kentucky storekeeper in particular who used "Blame!" by itself, as an expletive.  Actually, it sounded like "Bame!" but I think he was saying "Blame!"  It was quite distinctive.
 
"Dadblame it!" was also heard occasionally, and I agree that that must be based on "Goddamn it!" though I expect that the choice of "Dad" owes more to its similarity in sound to "God" than to any theological reanalysis.
 
 
John Baker
 

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From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Charles Doyle
Sent: Sun 8/20/2006 10:37 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: blamed



I've heard (probably used) "blamed" in that sense since my (East Texas) childhood in the 1950s/1960s.  I believe my assumption has always been that it somehow derives from the fuller (though still minced) curse "dadblame it"--which is surely based on "goddamn it," though I can't quite imagine the evolutionary process in phonological or semantic terms. "Dad" representing "God the Father"?? (I hardly think so!)

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 07:06:25 -0700
>From: "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
>Subject: blamed
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>I used the expression "blamed if I know what..." and my son, 23 years old who has lived all his life in New Jersey, asked me what it meant.
>
>I thought this was a common figure of speech (along with "hanged if I...", "darned if I...", "damned if I...", etc) but perhaps not.
>
>     James A. Landau

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