Tarnation

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Julie Keller from Pittsburgh, Indiana.

Pittsburgh, Indiana.

Pittsburgh?

Pittsburgh, yes.

It’s about 12 miles west of Indianapolis, just on the outskirts.

Okay, so right in the middle of the state.

What are we talking about today, Julie?

What are we talking about?

Okay, my three-year-old grandson was over a while back on one of these hot days, and we had filled up his kiddie pool.

And so he decided he wanted to add more water, so he went over to the hose and was kind of messing around with the sprayer.

And he said to me, how in tarnation do you turn this thing on?

He’s three years old?

Three.

Yes.

I thought, where in the heck did he hear that word?

Julie.

Where in tarnation did he hear that word?

What other words does he know?

Well, that one I thought was funny.

So I called my daughter and I said, where would he have picked up tarnation?

And apparently there’s a show, an animated show on cable, one of the cable stations that he watches that has a sheriff that’s a cat.

And she said she’s heard him say it on this little cartoon.

So I’ve told the story many times.

I think it’s just hilarious that a three-year-old would come up with that.

But then it made me think, where did that word come from?

I remember Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies saying it a lot.

But I just thought that’s an interesting word.

So that’s why I contacted you.

I agree.

Very interesting word.

We can do things with this.

Yeah.

Well, it’s an improvement on darnation.

Damnation.

Yes, the even stronger damnation.

Yeah, so I would encourage him to use darnation.

That’s great.

And the other thing that’s really interesting about this word is that it’s also influenced by a word, an old word, tarnal.

Can you guess what that means?

Like the tarnal this or that.

Again, it would be something that they’d bring.

T-A-R-N-A-L, tarnal.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I know it’s been around a long time and you hear it in old westerns.

Yeah.

Tarnal.

But I just thought that was such an interesting word for out of the mouth of babes, right?

Exactly.

Yeah, that tarnal that influences the word tarnation comes from an old use of eternal, which is a word that people would use very critically.

Like Shakespeare used it that way, the eternal devil.

And you could also talk about eternal damnation, which might turn into tarnal damnation, which might turn into tarnation.

Yeah.

Yeah, so that tarnal hose.

It’s been around a while.

Yeah.

Very interesting.

Well, I just thought that was just such a funny story.

It’s great.

So I thought I would share it with you and see where tarnation came from.

Yeah, it’s American, by the way.

The Brits don’t use it.

It’s not much heard except in American media outside this country.

But it is weird for a three-year-old to know that word because you think of it being some crusty old prospector from a 1950s movie.

You’ll shimmy shimmy.

I do not think of it.

This cartoon that he watches is very cute.

And they all have the little Western accents.

And I guess that’s what they say.

What’s the show?

What’s the show?

It’s called Sheriff Callie.

Oh, never heard of it.

It’s on Disney Junior.

And he loves that show.

It’s very sweet.

But they must use tarnation because that’s apparently where he heard it.

Tarnation?

You blame it.

And then I bet everybody laughs when he says it.

And so that just goes.

Right.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It’s been a great story.

Like I said, I’ve told it many times.

It just cracks me up.

That’s fantastic.

Well, give that sweet boy a squeeze for us, will you?

I will.

Well, thank you very much for your information.

Thanks a lot for calling.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye.

You know, that reminds me about when I was three years old.

I once piped up and said, well, that sounds logical.

And it was because of a cartoon character.

I think it was Sylvester the Cat or somebody.

But, you know, as soon as I said that, people just cracked up.

And so, of course, I said it more.

That was your catchphrase.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Language is a giant topic, and we’d like to get into all of it.

Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.