Blast

The root sense of this ancient word, recorded from Anglo-Saxon times, is “a strong gust of wind,” which in the sixteenth century extended to “a sudden infection destroying vegetable or animal life,” in those times thought to be the consequence of lightning or a malignant wind or planet. The verbal sense of “to curse with imprecations” or “to wish the wrath or curse of heaven upon,” with an appeal to God implied, is recorded from about 1634 in the curse “Blast you all” in George Chapman’s play Revenge for Honour (v). Thereafter the word follows the same basic development as damn , being used by writers such as Henry Fielding: “blast my reputation” (1752); Oliver Goldsmith: “Blast me!” (1762); and Thomas Babington Macaulay: “Calling on their Maker to curse them, blast them, and damn them” (1849, English History I iii). The participial form blasted follows the same route, from the barren “blasted heath” in Macbeth (I iii 77) to Lord Chesterfield’s view in 1750 that “Colonel Chartres … was I believe, the most notorious blasted rascal in the world” ( Letters , January 8). The semantic history thus shows the familiar pattern of generalization and loss of intensity. The word is generally more current in British than American English.