damnation

"Damnation" (or, more commonly, "damn", or "god damn") is widely used as a moderate profanity, which originated as such from the concept of punishment by God. Until around the mid-20th century damn was a more offensive term than it is today, and was frequently represented as "D--n," "D---," or abbreviated to just "D."

Religious

In some forms of Western Christian belief, damnation to hell is the punishment of God for persons with unredeemed sin. Damnation can be a motivator for conversions to Christianity.

One conception is of eternal suffering and denial of entrance to heaven, often described in the Bible as burning in fire.

Another conception, derived from the scripture about Gehenna is simply that people will be discarded (burned), as being unworthy of preservation by God.

In Eastern Christian traditions (Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy), as well as some Western traditions, it is seen as a state of separation from God, a state into which all humans are born but against which Christ is the Mediator and "Great Physician".

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sees damnation as a halt in progress rather than an eternal suffering. It is likened to a dam in a river that prevents the river from flowing as it normally would. One's eternal progression is impaired or "damnned" until one makes the proper steps towards repentance. Being damned is usually accompanied with feelings of guilt, grief, or other torment as a consequence for sin, but is not necessarily used to describe the actual state of suffering.

Non-religious formal uses

Sometimes the word damned refers to condemnation by humans, for example:

• A discussion guidefrom the California Council for the Humanities says "... The Grapes of Wrath was an immediate best-seller, widely praised and almost as widely damned throughout the country. ...".
• The common journalese expression "a damning report".

Colloquialisms

"Damn" is a mildly profane word used in North America while cursing or swearing. The use of "damn" in Rhett Butler's parting line to Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind in 1939 captivated moviegoers with "Quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

"God damn" is usually seen as more profane than simply "damn", and in present-day radio or television broadcasts, the word "God" is usually censored or blurred, leaving "damn" uncensored. An example of this is with the 2007 Fall Out Boy single, "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race".

In the USA, "damn" is also commonly used as an exclamation when an extremely attractive person or object of approval is located; e.g. "Damn, he/she is fine" or perhaps "Damn, he has a nice car!". "Hot damn" may be used similarly, but it is somewhat distinct; for example, if one says, "Joe just won the lottery," a response of "Damn!" on its own indicates disapproval, but "Hot damn!" indicates approval or surprise.

"Damned" is also used as an adjective synonymous with "annoying" or "uncooperative," or as a means of giving emphasis. For example, "The damned furnace is not working again!" or, "I did wash the damned car!" or, "The damned dog won't stop barking!"

Etymology

Its Proto-Indo-European language origin is usually said to be a root dap-, which appears in Latin and Greek words meaning "feast" and "expense". (The connection is that feasts tend to be expensive.) In Latin this root provided a theorized early Latin noun *dapnom, which became Classical Latin damnum = "damage" or "expense". But there is a Vedic Sanskrit root dabh or dambh = "harm".

The word damnum did not have exclusively religious overtones. From it in English came "condemn"; "damnified" (an obsolete adjective meaning "damaged"); "damage" (via French from Latin damnaticum). It began to be used for being found guilty in a court of law; but, for example, an early French treaty called the Strasbourg Oaths includes the Latin phrase in damno sit = "would cause harm". From the judicial meaning came the religious meaning.

Further reading

• The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners Jonathan Edwards, Diggory Press, ISBN 978-1846856723

See also

• Afterlife
• Problem of Hell
• Hell
• The Prokletije mountains in Albania and Montenegro, whose name means "Damned".
• Ron Simmons

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