2733: A Double-Minced Oath Jun 15, 2024

Though not so popular these days, the phrase “what in tarnation” is one of many minced oaths, or in other words, a replacement for a more serious or potentially blasphemous term, along with ‘gosh’, ‘gadzooks’, and sort of “gordon bennett”. The difference here is that ‘tarnation’ is a mince of ‘darnation’, which is already a mince of ‘damnation’. The difference here is that first of all, darnation was never a very popular word compared to simply ‘darn’, and was reinforced by the word ‘tarnal’, a modification of the word ‘eternal’ that had some popularity in the 19th century. Now the phrase is pretty much limited to humorous usage, and is certainly associated with the old American West.