Tinker's Dam and Damn
The tinker's dam is a wad of wet paper or other pliable material used to dam up a hole in a metal item being repaired by the tinker using molten solder. Thus the tinker's dam is worthless after the repair is completed.
This may have influenced the British expression of contempt "a tinker's damn" or "a tinker's cuss", applied to something considered insignificant. In common usage, the expression is used this way: "I don't give a tinker's damn what the Vicar thinks", or sometimes shortened to, "I don't give a tinker's about the Vicar." In this context, the speaker is expressing contempt for the local clergyman and his opinion. A tinker's curse was considered of little significance because tinkers were reputed to swear habitually.
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Famous quotes containing the words tinker, dam and/or damn:
“The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe; he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“The devil take one party and his dam the other!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It was impossible to praise it as beautiful, but it was also impossible to damn it as quaint.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)