Damn Right You Can Own a Curse Word-NFT!
AI requires human pollinators to infuse it with cultural updates — including curse words.
We’re embarking on an eight-part series covering some of the most controversial, yet beloved words in the language corpus — curse words. Each week we’ll feature a new curse word, including its etymology, history, and contemporary use and our reflections on the word in our everyday life. It might make us all uneasy or it might remind us of what makes us so creatively human — that we have this innate power to infuse words with so much meaning.
Though our human brains have a language center, words rise from more than one part of our brain. We know this from research on neurological diseases and disorders. What’s been understood over time is that profane words come from a deeper, older part of our brain and they are, more or less, a means of expressing our emotions.
This week we’re looking at damn. Do you use this word often?
Quotes
“The less you give a damn, the happier you’ll be.” — Anonymous
“Damn the rules, it’s the feeling that counts.” — John Coltrane
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” — W. C. Fields
Etymology & History
Damn functions as a noun, verb, interjection, and adjective. At Synesis One, some of us here prefer to use it as an adjective 😉. With latin roots in damnare and Old French roots in damner, damn first came onto the English scene in the late 1300s with religious origins and it is likely that its more vulgar use was also birthed at the same time. Here’s how its meaning evolved:
- 1300s: doom to punishment
- 1650s: judge or pronounce (a work) to be bad
- 1760: not give a damn
- 1812: used as an adjective; i.e. damn Yankee
- 1817: not worth a damn
Impact
Culturally, damn is not as offensive in today’s world as it was many, many decades ago — and that’s the power of language. Language and words seem to have the same capacity to shift and change just as much as we do and it’s one of the reasons why natural language AI will need the help of humans — because it is not sentient and it’s on the periphery of culture, AI requires human pollinators to infuse it with cultural updates — including curse words.
Pop Culture
Nearly all languages in the world contain swear words. Damn appears across the world (see it here). And from rap to country music to memes and movies, damn shows up! Here’s a few recent and older memories of damn in music and film. What did we miss?
Conclusion
Though we know some words can be offensive, damn seems to be less so in today’s world, crossing into multiple languages and other parts of our everyday lives. In fact, it seems to be one of the more frequently used cuss words and it’s really evolved over time. Could damn be your PFP?
One of our team members reflects on her earliest experiences with the word:
“Growing up I only heard curse words at school, TV or in film, with the exception of damn. My dad used it only once after I’d baked him cupcakes that he thought were so disgusting. I think I couldn’t tell the difference between powdered sugar and baking flour at the time. Oops! And at school you’d hear the kids say, ‘Get your damn hands off of me!’ or ‘I’ll bust you upside yo’ damn head’ — it was often used in a humorous way when telling jokes or stories too,” says Danver the team’s Head of Community.
Let us know what you think of this week’s reflection on damn in the comments!
The Synesis One Team has used ‘damn’ 19 times in their written communications since May 13, 2022.
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