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- ''This article discusses the concept of punishment by God, or use of the word as profane language. For the punk rock group, see The Damned. For other meanings, see damn (disambiguation).
Religious
In some forms of Western Christian belief, damnation to hell is the punishment of God for persons with unredeemed sin. Damnation can be a motivator for conversions to Christianity.
One conception is of eternal suffering and denial of entrance to heaven, often symbolized in the Bible as burning and fire.
Another conception, derived from the scripture about Gehenna is simply that people will be discarded (burned), as being unworthy of preservation by God.
In Eastern Christian traditions (Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy), as well as some Western traditions, it is not seen as a legalistic punishment meted out by an angry and vengeful God for a slight against some set of spiritual rules. Instead, it describes a state of separation from God, a state into which all humans are born but against which Christ is the Mediator and "Great Physician".
Other uses of the word
Sometimes the word damned refers to condemnation by humans, for example this link says "... The Grapes of Wrath was an immediate best-seller, widely praised and almost as widely damned throughout the country. ...".
Profane language
"Damnation" (or, more commonly, "damn", or "god damn") is widely used as a moderate profanity, except in the Southeastern USA where "god damn" is considered extremely offensive. Until around the mid-20th century damn was a more offensive term than it is today, and was frequently represented as "D--n," "D---," or abbreviated to just "D." The use of "damn" in Rhett Butler's parting line to Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind in 1939 captivated moviegoers.
"Damn" is commonly nowadays known as a very mildly profane word and used while cursing or swearing.
In the USA, "damn" is also commonly used as an exclamation when an extremely attractive person or object of approval is located; e.g. "Damn, he/she is fine" or perhaps "Damn, he has a nice car!". This usage is commonly linked to slang.
Etymology
Its Proto-Indo-European language origin is usually said to be a root dap-, which appears in Latin and Greek words meaning "feast" and "expense". (The connection is that feasts tend to be expensive.) In Latin this root provided a theorized early Latin noun *dapnom, which became Classical Latin damnum = "damage" or "expense". But there is a Vedic Sanskrit root dabh or dambh = "harm".
The word damnum had not as yet got exclusively religious overtones. From it in English came "condemn"; "damnified" (an obsolete adjective meaning "damaged"); "damage" (via French from Latin damnaticum). It began to be used for being found guilty in court; but, for example, an early French treaty called the Strasbourg Oaths includes the Latin phrase in damno sit = "would cause harm". From the judicial meaning came the religious meaning.
See also
"Damnation"