darn

See also: darń

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɑɹn/
• (New England) IPA^(key): /daːn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɑːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)n

Etymology 1

A minced oath of damn.

Adjective

darn (not comparable)

1. (euphemistic) Damn.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:damned

Derived terms

• darn tootin'

Translations

damn — see damn

Adverb

darn (not comparable)

1. (degree, euphemistic) Damned.
   • 1948, Cole Porter, “Too Darn Hot”:

     But I ain't up to my baby tonight / 'Cause it's too darn hot

   • 2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club‎:

     Of the two episodes, “Mortshall” is slightly weaker, while still being pretty darn good. I spent a lot of this season bemoaning the weaker entries, and like I said last time, it’s shit like this that makes me complain when stuff gets super dumb.

Interjection

darn

1. (euphemistic) Damn.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:dammit

Derived terms

• darn it
• darn right
• darn tootin'
• darn tooting
• darn well
• give a darn
• gosh darn
• goshdarn
• goshdarnit
• tinker's darn

Translations

Translations

Swedish: attans (sv), nedrans (sv), rackarns, sablar (sv) Tibetan: ཨ་ཡ (a ya), ཨ་ཁ (a kha), ཨ་ལས (a las) Welsh: daria

Verb

darn (third-person singular simple present darns, present participle darning, simple past and past participle darned)

1. (transitive, euphemistic) Damn.

Synonyms

• dang
• damn

Translations

damn — see damn

Noun

darn (plural darns)

1. (euphemistic) Damn.

   His opinion isn't worth a darn.

Etymology 2

From Middle English dernen (“to keep secret, hide, conceal (a hole)”), from Old English diernan (“to hide, conceal”), from Proto-West Germanic *darnijan, from Proto-West Germanic *darnī (“hidden, secret”). Related to Old English dyrne, dierne (“secret”, adjective).

Verb

darn (third-person singular simple present darns, present participle darning, simple past and past participle darned)

1. (transitive, sewing) To repair by stitching with thread or yarn, particularly by using a needle to construct a weave across a damaged area of fabric.

   I need to darn these socks again.

   • a. 1746 (date written), Jonathan Swift, “An Essay on the Fates of Clergymen”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume V, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 116:

     He spent every day ten hours in his closet, in reading his courses, dozing, clipping papers, or darning his stockings; which last he performed to admiration.

   • 1920 August 27, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Wind Blows”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 141:

     Does Mother imagine for one moment that she is going to darn all those stockings knotted up on the quilt like a coil of snakes ? She's not.

Usage notes

Predominantly used to describe repairs to stockings or socks. The frequency of references to both follows their general prominence, references to stockings being more historically prominent, references to socks being more recently prominent.

Derived terms

• darnable
• darner
• redarn
• undarned

Related terms

• darning egg
• darning needle

Translations

stitch with thread

Bulgarian: замрежвам (bg) (zamrežvam), закърпвам (bg) (zakǎrpvam) Chinese: Mandarin: 織補 / 织补 (zh) (zhībǔ), 縫補 / 缝补 (zh) (féngbǔ) Czech: štupovat Dutch: stoppen (nl) Esperanto: fliki Finnish: parsia (fi) French: repriser (fr) Galician: zurcir (gl) Georgian: კემსვა (ḳemsva), ნემსვა (nemsva) German: stopfen (de) Greek: μαντάρω (el) (mantáro) Hungarian: stoppol (hu) Ido: darnar (io) Ingrian: topata, štoopata Irish: dearnáil Italian: rammendare (it) Japanese: かがる (ja) (kagaru), 繕う (ja) (つくろう, tsukurou) Maori: tapi, moanarua Norman: dèrner Norwegian: Bokmål: stoppe (no) Polish: cerować (pl) impf, zacerować pf Portuguese: remendar (pt), cerzir (pt) Russian: што́пать (ru) impf (štópatʹ) Sanskrit: सीव्यति (sa) (sī́vyati) Slovak: štopkať Spanish: zurcir (es), surcir (es) Swedish: stoppa (sv) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: yamamak (tr) Ukrainian: церувати (uk) (ceruvaty), зацеровувати (zacerovuvaty), зацерувати pf (zaceruvaty) Vietnamese: mạng (vi)

Noun

darn (plural darns)

1. A place mended by darning.

Further reading

• Darning on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• DNAR, DNRA, Nard, RAND, Rand, andr-, nard, rDNA, rand, rdna

Cornish

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *darn, from Proto-Celtic *darnos, from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to split, to separate”). Cognate with Breton and Welsh darn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /daɹn/

Noun

darn m (plural darnow)

1. bit, fragment, piece

   Synonyms: pis, tamm

2. extract, part

Derived terms

• darn paper (“slip of paper”)
• darnas (“portion”)
• darnik (“nugget”)

Mutation

Mutation of darn

unmutated	soft	aspirate	hard	mixed	mixed after 'th
darn	dharn	unchanged	tarn	tarn	tarn

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Polish

Pronunciation

• (Masovia):
  • (Far Masovian) IPA^(key): [ˈdarn]

Noun

darn m inan

1. (Near Masovian, Garwolin County) alternative form of darń

Further reading

• Hieronim Łopaciński (1892), “darn”, in “Przyczynki do nowego słownika języka polskiego (słownik wyrazów ludowych z Lubelskiego i innych okolic Królestwa Polskiego”, in Prace Filologiczne (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw: skł. gł. w Księgarni E. Wende i Ska, page 190

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh darn, from Proto-Brythonic *darn, from Proto-Celtic *darnos, *darnā, from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to split, separate”). Cognate with Cornish darn, Breton darn, French darne (“piece of fish”) and, more distantly, Polish darń (“sod”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /darn/
• Rhymes: -arn

Noun

darn m or f (plural darnau)

1. a piece, a fragment, a patch

   Synonym: pisyn

   Wyt ti eisiau darn arall o gacen?

   Do you want another piece of cake?

   Rwy wedi prynu darn o dir coedig.

   I've bought a patch of wooded land.

2. a part

   Mae eisiau darn newydd i'r car.

   The car needs a new part.

3. a coin

   Synonym: darn arian

   Oes gen ti ddarn punt?

   Have you got a pound coin?

4. a passage

   Darllenwch y darn cyn ateb y cwestiynau.

   Read the passage before answering the questions.

Derived terms

• darnio (“tear to pieces”)
• deuddarn
• tridarn

Mutation

Mutated forms of darn

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
darn	ddarn	narn	unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “darn”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
• Matasović, Ranko (2009), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 90-1