Damp

How to spell damp

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce damp

What does damp mean?

1. adjectiveSlightly wet, often in an unpleasant or unwanted way.
2. nounMoisture in the air or in the structure of a building, especially in walls.
3. verbTo reduce, slow, or deaden something such as sound, vibration, or enthusiasm.

Damp in a sentence

• adjective

  The towels were still damp when she packed them.

• noun

  Rising damp had ruined the plaster on the lower wall.

• verb

  Thick carpets help damp the noise between floors.

• adjective

  A damp basement can damage stored furniture.

• noun

  The surveyor noted signs of damp behind the kitchen units.

• verb

  The bad review did little to damp their excitement.

Where does damp come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Damp arrived in Middle English from a Low German or Middle Dutch source, where forms such as 'damp' meant vapour, steam, or smoke. The earliest English uses, recorded in the 1400s, referred not to wetness but to a noxious gas or fog, a sense that survives in the old mining term 'firedamp' for an explosive underground vapour. From the idea of a clinging mist the word gradually softened into its modern meaning of slight moisture by the 1700s. It is a close relative of the German 'Dampf', meaning steam, which is why the word is at the heart of the family that also gives us 'damper' and the modern coinage 'damped'. Because it is a short, phonetically regular word, the spelling has stayed stable and transparent for centuries.

How the word is built

• damp (single Germanic root meaning vapour or moisture; no prefix or suffix)