tinker's damn

English

Alternative forms

• tinker's dam

Etymology

A popular etymology is that tinkers used a small piece of dough or clay, a dam, to stop the flow of solder until it solidified. The dam was single-use, and was thrown away afterwards as useless.

However, this is just polish added to an old phrase, as not worth a damn predates the use of tinker's damn. The reference to tinkers was added for emphasis and colour - tinkers were known for swearing, so a damn from a tinker was particularly worthless. Also, it was a way, as with "Fudge" or "Geez Louise" or a million other soft-core curses, to avoid saying the actual word "damn" while pronouncing the word "dam."

Noun

tinker's damn

1. a worthless amount

Synonyms

• tinker's cuss (mostly British)

Derived terms

• not give a tinker's damn

References

• The Maven's Word of the Day
• “A tinker's damn”, The Phrase Finder, Gary Martin.