To curse, damn, or condemn thoroughly; to invoke damnation upon.
From 'be-' prefix plus 'damn' (from Old French 'damner,' from Latin 'damnare'). The prefix intensifies the curse, suggesting condemning something or someone with great force.
In older religious contexts, bedamning something was treated as a serious act—calling down curses upon a person was considered spiritually significant. Modern English mostly dropped these 'be-' curse words, probably because we got more secular and less worried about invoking divine punishment!
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