In the 19th Century, the expressions “drunk as a tinker” and “swears like a tinker” were commonplace, as were, “not worth a tinker’s curse” and “not worth a tinker’s damn.” In the old days when tinkers traveled about the countryside toting the tools of their trade, they were considered a rather disreputable lot. That’s a commonly known fact that seems to have found its way into dinner-party-conversational trivia for more than a century. After use, the “dam” was tossed away as worthless thus, “not worth a tinker’s dam.” The theory has it that a tinker’s dam is a small piece of dough or putty that was fashioned to hold molten solder in place while the tinker was repairing pots and pans. It’s been a long time since I last did so, and I still get letters, the most recent just last week-a very pleasant one from a lady named Olive Swanson-saying that “tinker’s damn” is wrong, because the proper phrase is “tinker’s dam” so here we go again. I’ve written about the expression “not worth a tinker’s damn” before.
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