December 18, 1996

tarnation

Can you shed some light on the meaning and origin of "tarnation"? It isn't even listed in my dictionary.

The exact meaning of tarnation is hard to pinpoint, because it's used as an oath in relatively vague constructions.

But in many cases, "hell" or "the devil" would be a good substitute. It can be used as an interjection (just "Tarnation!," like "damn!"); as an intensive in various ways ("What in tarnation are you talkin' about?"); as a substitute for "hell" or "the devil" ("Well, tarnation strike me!"--James Joyce, Ulysses); as an adjective meaning 'damned' ("I'm in a tarnation hurry"); or as a vaguely intensive adverb like "damnably" ("He's tarnation bad").

Tarnation is probably a blend of tarnal, which is a dialect pronunciation of eternal and which was used as a mild oath, and darnation, a euphemistic variant of damnation. ("Darn" itself is also a euphemism for "damn"; its origin is obscure.) Tarnation is originally and chiefly an Americanism. It is first attested in the late eighteenth century in New England.