Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) damnably.

1787		R. Tyler Contrast V i: What the rattle makes you look so tarnation glum?
1809		A.B. Lindsley Yankee Notions 10: Why, capun Horner, you walk so tarnation faste.
1815		D. Humphreys Yankey in England 32: You are tarnation bright — clear as mud.
1824		Microscope (Albany, NY) 3 Apr. n.p.: General Key is a tarnation sly old fox.
1824		Annals of Sporting 1 Feb. 116: Tarnation good song.
1833		Satirist (London) 26 May 3/3: It must be a tarnation queer feeling.
1837		Edinburgh Observer 17 Feb. n.p.: His performance throughout was ‘tarnation’ and ‘cantankerous’ clever, and kept the house in an unceasing convulsion of laughter.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 29 Sept. 46/2: Every one says I am tarnationaly improved by travel.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 22 Oct. n.p.: You’ll always find the Yankees plucky — / [...] / And, if they’re not used well, tarnation rough.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 180: You be tarnation like somebody I’ve seen afore.
1847		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 1 Aug. 5/4: B. was there, looking tarnationly mopish.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Mar. 1/3: Smith looked queerish, and felt ‘tarnation’ so-so.
1850		Life in N.Y. 5 Oct. n.p.: That tarnashun pooty critter.
1854		J. Wilson Recreations of Christopher North 133: From the tarn, who is a ’tarnation deep ’un, runs a rill.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 357: Mrs N had got on a tarnation tall hop – a reg’lar Old Tar River breakdown.
1868		Dly Ohio Statesman 13 June 1/4: I was tarnation soft on one woman.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 221: The poor boy’s ’bout passin’ away, an’ things is a workin’ so tarnation curious!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 18/4: I’ve had a good look at these goods and they’re tarnation prime – in fact, I consider that for every £10 laid out by me [...] I’ve got at least £13 of stuff, so that I am £3 in every £10 better off than if I had not been lucky enough to strike ‘ile’ in the Haymarket, Sydney.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 214: I am tarnation busy this morning.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 156: Gal, I’m tarnation tickled to see you Hum again.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 Aug. 4/1: Saturday [...] was tarnation rough on the gentle punter.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 274: Why act so tarnation queer and ornery?
1949		‘Josephine Tey’ Brat Farrar 154: ‘Mr. Patrick, I’m glad to see you. I’m tarnation glad to see you’.