Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a euph. for damn adj.

1875		Jasper Wkly Courier (IN) 24 Sept. 6/4: That’s before I had that tussle with that dang nigger down East. Dang a nigger, anyway [...] I’ve been dang nigh everywhere in the meantime.
1890		Ottowa Dly Republic (KS) 1 July 4/5: ‘Wal, I swar pine blank! Crazy, stranger? Not by er dang sight!’.
1892		H. Lawson ‘The Bush Undertaker’ in Roderick (1972) 54: That’s another of them theer dang things!
1915		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 6 June 39/3: Sure we’re mad — dang mad. An’ with everlastin’ dang good cause’.
1922		Wkly Jrnl Miner (Prescott, AZ) 5 July 3/4: I looked through the whole 40 volumes [...] and there isn’t a dang word there that’ll fit.
1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 237: Those dang motors ’ud be a-rushin’ through a-killin’ folk.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 260: I know that we’re both a-riskin’ our skins an’ hides out here a-dickerin’ aroun’ with two sech dang-burn perty gals. [Ibid.] 378: ’Fore she runs off ’n’ gits all tangled up with some dang-gum sheep-trail man.
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 41: You’re the best dang-bang manager I ever had.
1960		T. Southern ‘Red-dirt Marijuana’ in Southern (1973) 10: I can’t smell nothin’ but your dang sweat.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 316: If he don’t leave me be, Pa, I’ll throb his dang knob.
1991		Desperate Dan Special No. 7 4: Bullseye! Woops! Bust the dang sword!
2000		P. Cornwell Last Precinct 429: He bugged me [...] Always coming over here to play with the dang dog.
2012		NY Times 18 Jan. 🌐 My favourite slang word is ‘dang’.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘So, I axe him I says “S’up, man?” and he says none of my dang business’.