Samuel Beckett provides an endless font of archaic phrases in his novels and a bit of dialogue in Murphy provided the relatively ancient expression: "damn your eyes".
The etymology for this phrase is vacuous on teh interwebs, as it seems to be a folk expression. I did find an early origin when STERNE Tr. Shandy III. xii. 64 (1761) stateth: - From the great and tremendous oath of William the Conqueror, (By the splendour of God) down to the lowest oath of a scavenger, "Damn your eyes".
The 'eyes' addition to 'damn you(r)' is a synecdoche encompassing the cursed.
Employ it thusly:
"I told you not to use my pots and pans, damn your eyes!"
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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