[Sirrotica]

Basically it means something that has little value or merit, usually someones opinion.


tinker's damn
noun
1.
the least value or merit; nothing or anything at all: It's not worth a tinker's damn.
Idioms
2.
care / give a tinker's damn, to have or feel little or no concern; be unaffected or unmoved: I don't care a tinker's damn for their opinions.
Also, tinker's dam.

Origin:
1830–40; from tinkers' alleged habit of cursing frequently (hence weakening the force of a curse)

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

Also, tinker's dam.

Origin:
1830–40; from tinkers' alleged habit of cursing frequently (hence weakening the force of a curse)

I'm sorry to digress, but I thought the origin of "tinker's dam" had to do with silversmithing.

A silversmith was known as a "tinker" and worked with solder. They would use a clay like substance to keep the solder from running out of position, hence a "tinker's dam".

Also gave birth to the phrase "tinkerer" - as someone who putters around in a small shop.

I cannot cite references...

K

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I'm sorry to digress, but I thought the origin of "tinker's dam" had to do with silversmithing.

A silversmith was known as a "tinker" and worked with solder. They would use a clay like substance to keep the solder from running out of position, hence a "tinker's dam".

Also gave birth to the phrase "tinkerer" - as someone who putters around in a small shop.

I cannot cite references...

K

Keith, I guess it makes a difference of who you ask, still means of little consequence.


A tinker's damn

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• Conflict and crime

Meaning

Something that is insignificant or worthless.
Origin

There's some debate over whether this phrase should be 'tinker's dam' - a small dam to hold solder, made by tinkers when mending pans, or 'tinker's damn' - a tinker's curse, considered of little significance because tinkers were reputed to swear habitually.
If we go back to 1877, in the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, Edward Knight puts forward this definition:

"Tinker's-dam - a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless."

That version of events has gone into popular folklore and many people believe it. After all, any definition written as early has 1877 has to be true doesn't it?
Knight may well have been a fine mechanic but there has to be some doubt about his standing as an etymologist. There is no corroborative evidence for his speculation and he seems to have fallen foul of the curse of folk etymologists - plausibility. If an ingenious story seems to neatly fit the bill then it must be true. Well, in this case, it isn't. The Victorian preference of 'dam' over 'damn' may also owe something to coyness over the use of a profanity in polite conversation.
That interpretation of the phrase was well enough accepted in Nevada in 1884 for the Reno Gazette to report its use in the defence of a Methodist preacher who was accused of the profanity of using the term 'tinker's dam':

"It isn't profane any more to say tinker's dam. The minister stated that a tinker's dam was a dam made by itinerant menders of tinware on a pewter plate to contain the solder".

The same view was expressed in the Fitchburg Sentinel newspaper in 1874.
The problem with that interpretation is that all those accounts ignore an earlier phrase - 'a tinker's curse' (or cuss), which exemplified the reputation tinkers had for habitual use of profanity. This example from John Mactaggart's The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824, predates Knight's version in the popular language:

"A tinkler's curse she did na care what she did think or say."

In the Grant County Herald, Wisconsin, 1854, we have:

"There never was a book gotten up by authority and State pay, that was worth a tinker's cuss".

So, we can forget about plumbing. The earlier phrase simply migrated the short distance from 'curse' to 'damn' to give us the proper spelling of the phrase - tinker's damn.

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[tom s]

Nice job Brad!Tom

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by tom s

Nice job Brad!Tom

TY Tom,