Answer: Damped vs. Tamped

[momebie]

From china_shop: Which is correct: "he tamped down his excitement" or "he damped down his excitement"?

With examples from Harry Potter, The Mighty Boosh, and Death Note...The short answer to your question is that, strictly speaking, neither of those examples is incorrect. To get a better understanding of the tone that each choice lends to the sentence,

Comments

[spiletta42]

You have a Moss icon! *squee* I have nothing useful to add.

[momebie]

Richard Ayoade is made of awesome. <3

[spiletta42]

Okay, I love that icon, and must go watch that episode again immediately.

[momebie]

Go, go! It's my second favorite one, after The Red Door. I've seen them both more times than I can remember.

[china_shop]

Thanks so much for this but I'm still a little confused.

when used for a purpose similar to the one in the suggestion it is really a choice between 'tamp' or 'dampen'.

So does that mean my original example -- "he damped down his excitement" -- is incorrect, and should be "he dampened down his excitement"? You said at the beginning that neither option was invalid, strictly speaking. *wrinkles forehead*

My Concise OED gives this definition of "damp" (as opposed to "dampen"): control or restrain (a feeling or a situation) (along with a couple of more scientific definitions), whereas for "tamp" the options are 1. pack (a blast hole) full of clay or sand to concentrate the force of the explosion. 2. firmly ram or pack (a substance) down or into something. And that's it. So I tend to think that the one that mentions feelings in the definitions would be more correct

[spiletta42]

This is one of those cases where I'd avoid making the choice, and find a third word, because even if you're right, half your readers will get distracted wondering if it's right, and that takes them right out of the story.

[china_shop]

*nodnod* Thanks for the advice. :-)

[momebie]

From what I could find in my searches, it seems to be a difference of imagery. Most instances of the word damped are used when referring to physics problems, leading me to believe that when something is damped, it is most likely stopped from vibrating or oscillating. If his excitement were something that had him say, shaking like Techno Mouse, then it would be damped when he came to rest. If he tamped his emotion he would have kept it in check by beating it back, meaning that it hadn't been a simple thing to keep down.

I found my definitions of words at m-w.com and the one for tamp includes that bit about putting check on intangible things like rumours, so I believe that other intangibles could be used in that way as well. It might be a question of dialect too, where if most of the readers who brought up the question lived in one area of the world and you lived in another, but I'm not sure since I don't have that information. :)