Consarn
Posted by ESC on October 29, 2001
In Reply to: Carn Sarn posted by Lee Gilchrist on October 29, 2001
: Here's one I've always wondered about. I don't even know how it's spelled. It's used in phrases like "that carn sarn car won't start" or "carn sarn it!" kind of like "dang nab" or "dog gone".
: I've also always like the phrases "Sink me!" used by Nigel Bruce in the movie "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and the declarations "What the Deuce?" or "The Deuce you say!" Any ideas on their origins?
consarn -- Damn, darn. "Consarn it!" From Whistlin' Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions by Robert Hendrickson (Pocket Books, New York, 1993).
Another source says "consarn" is "concern" and has several meanings but only the equivalent of concern is listed. I don't know if the two "consarns" are connected. From "Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech Based on the Research of Horace Kephart," edited by Harold J. Farwell Jr., and J. Karl Nicholas (University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., 1993).
- Deuce R. Berg 10/29/01