tinker's damn en · NOUN
Etymology
Merriam-Webster finds tinker's damn in print since 1839 and suggests that it derives from tinkers' reputation for swearing. The spelling tinker's dam is attested since 1858, and phrases.org.uk notes the disagreement over whether the term originated from tinkers' swearing or instead from their use of small, single-use dams to hold solder. The latter explanation has been offered since 1877; on the other hand, the phrase tinker's curse is attested since 1824 and the phrase worth a tinker's cuss is attested since 1854, for which reason Etymonline considers the "dam" derivation an "ingeniously elaborate but baseless" invention of later writers.
Meanings
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An insignificant or worthless amount or thing.
So now, stimulated by some further experience with that world which does not care a tinker’s damn whether a verb agrees with its subject in number and person or not, she permitted the taxicab to jounce her smile out of all semblance to anything calmly superior and into a very unschoolmarmish grin.
1921, Harvey Wickham, “Introducing the Garden of Eden”, in The Clue of the Primrose Petal, New York, N.Y.: Edward J. Clode, page 9:[…] is not worth (to use expression excited by honest indignation) a tinker's damn : and if Mrs. Chatterly has no other salvo for her precious reputation. […]
1 May 1823, Mrs Chatterly, Anon in Ramblers Magazine, Vol 2 No 5, p. 216[…] and I wouldn't sell you a tinker's damn.
2012, Django Unchained:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| tinker's darn | alternative | lexicographic | |
| tinker's dam | alternative | lexicographic |