Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a euph. for hell.

1801		G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 66: You may cheat the Devil of an oath as the Americans say, Tarnation seize me, or swamp me, if I don’t do this or that!
1809		A.B. Lindsley Yankee Notions 37: Tarnation seize me, but I’ll cabbage his bottle.
1832		New England Mag. (Boston) III 380: We have [...] ‘Gosh’ and ‘Gorrih’ for ‘By G—d’; ‘tarnation’ and ‘darnation’ for damnation .
1833		Hants. Teleg. 22 July 2/5: Neither you nor I would like to march up there now, for tarnation seize me if President himself would calculate upon a man’s going up to be shot at.
1840		Carlisle Jrnl 26 Sept. 4/4: O doctor! come quick! tarnation’s to pay over at our house!
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature I 117: I’ll cut and run, and dod drot me if I don’t, for it’s tarnation all over.
1866		Broad Arrow Jack 22: But how the tarnation he did it I don’t know.
1869		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents Abroad 27: Not going to Paris! Not g— well, then, where in the nation are you going to?
1871		O. Logan Mimic World and Public Exhibitions 192: I’d see them in tarnation before I’d take the oath.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 116: How in the nation did they ever git into such a scrape?
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 10 May11/1: He babbled towards the break of day / Of green fields and tarnation.
1895		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Old Pardon, the Son of Reprieve’ Man from Snowy River (1902) 14: If Pardon don’t spiel like tarnation / And win the next heat — if he can — / He’ll earn a disqualification.
1897		‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer, Detective 15: ‘Why, they don’t talk about you at all.’ [...] ‘The nation!’ he says, surprised; ‘why is that?’.
1901		T. Hammond On Board a Whaler 32: ‘Why ’n tarnation did n’t yeh slack?’ the captain roared.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 7: Tan bark and teetotal tarnation. No good’ll come of ’t.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 177: A. E. has been telling some yankee interviewer. Wall, tarnation strike me!
1929		(con. WWI) H. Odum Wings on My Feet 73: Hell an’ tarnation, that sholy is Big Joseph.
1936		(ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 79: That wall yonder, near which he raised hell-and-tarnation to scale over twenty years ago.
1938		B. Conlon ‘Rope Meat’ Wild West Weekly 22 Oct. 🌐 What in tarnashun’s the —.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 51: What in tarnation is a folk-drama?
1964		J. Thompson Pop. 1280 in Four Novels (1983) 388: Now, who in tarnation can that be?
1972		Hall & Adelman Gentleman of Leisure 50: I’ve been through hell and carnation to get that lady, so you could have her.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 2: Why in carnation is Hermie Klitcher writing me?
1977		R. Coover Public Burning (1979) 417: What in tarnation is goin’ on here!?!
1982		M. Braun Judas Tree (1983) 98: What in tarnation for?
1997		P. Cornwell Unnatural Exposure (1998) 300: What in tarnation are you doing in these parts?