Tarnal

Part of speech: adjective, adverb

Definitions

1. Lasting forever without end, a regional form of eternal ; used as a mild oath or intensifier meaning darned or damned in informal American speech
2. Existing without end or limit, as in older rural speech ; serving as a folksy intensifier equivalent to darned, damned or blasted
3. Without beginning or ending in time, a dialect variant of eternal ; a colloquial expletive used to add emphasis, much like darned or confounded

Etymology: "Tarnal" is a dialect or American colloquial word, and its origin is an unusual piece of word-mangling. The source treats it as a euphemistic alteration of "eternal," which itself is a minced form of "infernal." In other words, speakers who wanted to curse without saying a damning word reached for something that sounded close enough to avoid offence. The result is a word that carries the force of "infernal" or "damned" while sounding like a harmless, even pious, adjective meaning "everlasting." Its use is typically emphatic and mildly profane in tone, as in phrases like "the tarnal fool," where the speaker is venting rather than making a literal claim about eternity.

Synonyms: eternal, darned