What is the correct spelling, dammit or damnit? And what is the difference?
Just writing this question brings up a red squiggly underneath damnit and the suggestions include dammit and damn it.
asked Aug 23, 2012 at 14:51
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Nobody (as far as I know) pronounces the 'n' in damnit, whereas the 'n' is pronounced in words like damnation and hymnal. So dammit is a more phonetic spelling.– Peter ShorAug 23, 2012 at 15:29
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1Well, I suppose it depends on whether you mean, "build a dam across that valley" or "this sucks" 😛– KirbyJan 9, 2020 at 19:39
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2 Answers
The usage stats from the British National Corpus (BNC) look as follows:
ALL SPOKEN FICTION MAGAZINE NEWSPAPER ACADEMIC NON-ACAD MISC
dammit 125 3 99 3 8 0 7 5
damnit no results
damn it 158 12 137 1 1 0 2 5
And here are the stats from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA):
ALL SPOKEN FICTION MAGAZINE NEWSPAPER ACADEMIC
dammit 763 20 647 60 30 6
damnit 94 2 86 6 0 0
damn it 1307 83 1112 58 36 18
The Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) paints the following picture:
(X axis: year, Y axis: incidences per million words)
answered Aug 23, 2012 at 15:18
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Damnit could be used, though you're better off with "dammit" or "damn it". As per Wiktionary:
damnit
Nonstandard contraction of damn + it
Interjection (especially southern US)
Common misspelling of dammit.
Edit: As my answer points out, "damnit" is considered a misspelling of the more popular "dammit", which confirms ЯegDwight♦'s data.
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7I really, really wonder who decides which is the correct spelling of such words and which is not.– SF.Aug 23, 2012 at 15:00
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2@SF. I originally had "correct" with quotes. As you know, correct English is decided upon by its use. People use "dammit", as well, so I wouldn't call the other "wrong". It looks like a matter of preference/style.– ZairjaAug 23, 2012 at 15:05
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@Zairja Off topic- I don't understand the downvoting of valid or valiant answers either so I upvoted you.– mikeYAug 23, 2012 at 21:20
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1My book editor corrected all of my
dammitspellings todamnit. I corrected his correction.– Matt HJul 17, 2015 at 4:17 -
@SF The same people who realized that "ain't" should be spelled as it's pronounced, even though none of the words it's a contraction of are spelled "ai". Oct 26, 2020 at 22:58