blamed

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not used in whippersnapperdom, but widely known.

  Not in HDAS because not "slangy" enough (a judgment call indeed).

  OED, calling _blamed_ "dial. and U.S.," defines it as equivalent to "blasted," but none of its exx. (starting in 1840)  take the form "blamed if...."

  JL
Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
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
___________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 07:06:25 -0700
>From: "James A. Landau"
>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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com.  Check it out.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org