Dammit

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. An exclamation uttered to express anger, irritation, or exasperation at an unwelcome situation
2. A curse word spoken aloud to convey frustration, disappointment, or strong displeasure about something
3. An interjection used to vent annoyance, frustration, or anger in response to an annoying event or realization

Etymology: "Dammit" is a univerbation of "damn" and "it", meaning the two words have fused into a single unit that is spoken as one. The sense is simple: the speaker is venting frustration, and the "it" is a vague stand-in for whatever has gone wrong, whether a dropped key, a stalled car or a lost argument. Because the second half is an ordinary pronoun, the expression reads as a compressed sentence rather than a single word, which helps explain why it feels so natural in speech. The fusion is what makes the term unusual. "Damn" was once a serious word, carrying the sense of condemnation to damnation, and in its full form "damn it" still keeps that exclamatory force. Squeezing the two words into one spoken unit softened the phrase, letting speakers express anger while sounding milder than the original.

Synonyms: damn, darn, drat, blast