Damn, damhable, damnation

These words have in the course of time suffered a process of degeneration, for which, says Bishop Sanderson, ' we are not so much beholden to good acts as to bad manners.' The Lat. damnare signified 'to inflict loss on one,' 'to condemn.' But, under the influence of theology, the Eng. words thence derived soon acquired the sense of ' condemnation to eternal punishment ' j and this special appli- cation ran alongside the orig. meaning from the 14th cent, to the 18th. In the 1619 ed.

of the Bishops' NT, the translation of 1 Ti 5'^ is ' having damnation, because they have cast away their first faith ' ; and there is added this note : ' S. Paul doth not here speake of the everlasting damnation, but by this word damnation, doeth rather understand the shame that those wanton widowes shall have in the world for breaking their promise.' Thus even then the sense to which the words are now wholly confined was the most familiar. But in earlier English it was not so.

To Wyclif's ear the words must have had a veir different suggestion, for he not only uses 'damn freely in the sense of ' condemn,' as in his tr. of Job 9° ' If I wole make me iust, my mouth shall dampne me,' but even uses it of our Lord Himself, as in Mk U" ' For lo ! we stien to Jerusalem, and mannns sone schal be bitraied to the princis of prestis, and to scribis, and to the eldre men ; and thei schulen dampne hym hi delli.' In AV 'damned' occurs u tr. of »«t««^;.

» Mk 16i«, Ro 1428 (RV ' condemned '), ot ufi.i 2 Th 2ia(RV 'judged '). ' Damnable ' IS found only 2 P 21 'damnable heresies,' Or. aufiivttt itriuiat, KV 'deatructlve heresies,' RVm 'sects of perdition.' ' Damnation' is the tr. of xa-ratiixri Wis 1227 (RV • condemnation ') ; of m.

^iiXu» 2 P 28 (RV 'destruction'); of xpurit Mt 23^, Jn 6» (RV 'Judg- ment'), Mk 329 (liV 'sin,' reading i/it^f>),uoe) ; and of ^j>ot Mk ll^", Lk 2(^', Ro 3», 1 Ti 612 (KV 'condemnation'), Ko 132, l Co 1129 (RV 'judgment'), while Mt 23lJ is omitted from RV. Thus the words are never used in AV in the sense now attaching to them, and thej' are completely banished Irom RV. See more fully Roberts in Expos. Tijruis, iii. &4dff., and the art. JuDO.Ma.NT, J. HA.STINOS.

DAMSEL, now archaic or poetical, is freely used in AV ; and it is retained in RV, except where the Or. is waiSLov (Mk 539-«M'.« 'child') or iraidt<rKv (Mt 26«», Jn 18", Ac 12" 16" ' maid '). In Gn 34« one word (thj na'dn'th) is tivice tr'' in AV ' d.,' in v. another {:r!):yalddh); and again in MkS**"-" we have one word {iratSioe), in w.^'-** another {Kopdaiov}. RV preserves the distinction in St. Mark. J. Has'HNOS.