NOT TO CARE or BE WORTH A CONTINENTAL or CONTINENTAL DAMN, phr. (American).—To be worthless; not to care in the least degree. [CONTINENTAL was the common qualification at the time of the Revolution of whatever concerned the American Colonies before they were united into a confederacy; hence CONTINENTAL congress, CONTINENTAL money, CONTINENTAL troops; while the people themselves were generally spoken of as CONTINENTALLERS or CONTINENTALS. CONTINENTAL DAMN, a term almost universally applied to the worthless CONTINENTAL paper money of those days is, nevertheless held by James Grant White (Words and Their Uses) to be a counterpart, if not a mere modification, of other phrases of the same kidney—a tinker’s or trooper’s damn, etc.—and as the colonial troops were called CONTINENTALLERS or CONTINENTALS during the war, and for many years afterwards, it is probable that it began as a CONTINENTAL’S DAMN. Passing to the general phrase ‘not worth a damn’ Mr. White thinks that the ‘damn’ = A.S. cerse = watercress. Piers Ploughman (1362) says ‘wisdom and witt nowe is not worth a kerse’ and transition, by reason of identity of sound and a love of variety, from ‘not worth a curse’ to ‘not worth a damn’ is easy.]—See CARE and CURSE.
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, xlvii. He didn’t give a CONTINENTAL for anybody. Beg your pardon, friend, for coming so near saying a cuss-word.
1888. Missouri Republican, 16 Feb. I am not worrying about the nomination; though. I DON’T CARE A CONTINENTAL if I don’t receive it.
