March 7, 2024 - I was watching the Dr. Phil show the other day when he made a statement that I had not heard in a long time. He told one of his guests that he didn’t “care a tinker’s damn about that”. That comment prompted me to delve into that old saying as to its real or intended meaning. The meaning in today’s society is “something that is insignificant or worthless”. However, the saying has more than that one meaning.
First, we must establish who or what a “tinker” is. I recall that in my early years men who repaired watches were referred to as “watch tinkerers”. My mother’s brother, Bonnar Whitton, was a watch tinkerer most of his life. However, the word started out in the 13th century Scotland referring to a metal worker. So, the original meaning of the word is the “process of adapting, meddling, or adjusting something in the course of making repairs or improvements.” Sometimes men “tinker” around the house making repairs to various items.
In early England some traveling groups and Gypsies adopted this lifestyle of repairing metal, usually pots and pans, using molten solder. They would travel from town to town, set up their repair shop, and then move on when their services were no longer needed.
It is recorded that these Gypsy tinkerers were notorious for their vulgar and offensive language, spewing it wherever they went. As a result, some people believe that the phrase “a tinker’s damn” was born from this activity.
The second word of the phrase is “dam”. A tinker’s dam was a temporary patch to repair a hole in a metal vessel such as a pot or pan. The dam was usually made of mud or clay and was built up around the outside of a hole, so as to plug it. Molten solder was then poured on the inside of the hole. The solder solidified against the dam and bonded with the metal wall. The hole being repaired, the dam was scraped away and discarded. Since it could only be used once it was considered worthless. The remaining solder was then rasped and smoothed down by the tinker.
All of this may have influenced the English phrase “tinker’s cuss”, which expresses contempt. The phrases “tinker’s damn” and “tinker’s cuss” may also be applied to something considered insignificant. In the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics of 1877, Edward Knight makes 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 used once, thus being consequently thrown away as worthless”.
Basically, then, there is some debate over whether the 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 (cuss), considered of little significance because tinkers were reputed to swear habitually.
I suppose that in the end it does not matter which is the correct beginning of the phrase – you can forget either the plumbing or the cursing idea and just run with it whenever you express your opinion about something being worthless. There are many things going on today that would fit the idea perfectly.
