How have you used the phrase "tamp down"? I have seen it used to describe pressing down tobacco in a pipe. Dictionary.com describes it as packing something down with blows or taps, such as packing clay, sand, or dirt into a drill hole above an explosive; there is another example of tamping down coffee grinds to make "espresso coffee." However, today I read the following: "'Both the Department of Defense and the folks at CENT-COM tried very hard to tamp down a lot of the stories and speculation about (Lynch) and her circumstances,' said Lt. Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington."

Have any of you seen it used that way?

Used in this way, it seems to imply a pressing of the incident to the level of normal chatter, thus making it inconspicuous. It appears that tamp, tampion, and tampon all have a common origin - but what a range in meaning!

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'Both the Department of Defense and the folks at CENT-COM tried very hard to tamp down a lot of the stories and speculation about (Lynch) and her circumstances,'

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You could substitute damp for tamp in that sentence,and still get roughly the same meaning.

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'Both the Department of Defense and the folks at CENT-COM tried very hard to tamp down a lot of the stories and speculation about (Lynch) and her circumstances,'

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You could substitute damp for tamp in that sentence, and it would make slightly better sense.

Tamp down sounds fine. Damp down is barely literate and doesn't quite work.

Tamping is what you do to powders to make them occupy a smaller space.

Tamping is what you do to powders to make them occupy a smaller space. I agree, Graham, but that is precisely why I don't think it works in that sentence. That significantly changes the limited meaning of that word...unless someone has found a broader meaning for it. I didn't. Perhaps this is how words evolve and eventually change their meaning.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
_Perhaps this is how words evolve and eventually change their meaning.

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Maybe but I, for one, ain't buyin' it!

What the officials in question are trying to do is not "tamping down" but "side-stepping" the apparent over-glorification of Lynch's rescue for the purpose of bolstering America's propaganda efforts in Iraq. We've stuck our foot in it in a big way (not to mention in a number of ways!) over there without screwing with the language!

For what it's worth, when I was a kid "tamping down" was what we called the activity required of the grass in someone's lawn before it became usable as a ballfield. About a dozen of us would stomp on the higher patches of grass (clumps of crabgrass, mostly) so that ground balls hitting them would not take awkward bounces. I'm pretty sure this definition relates to the one regarding patting down tobacco in a pipe.

I don't remember hearing the phrase "tamp down" before. It seems redundant, since "tamp" means to pack down. But, as James J. Kilpatrick (The Writer's Art) would say, it's a "benign redundancy". I think it's a poor choice in this sentence. Perhaps "play down" (to minimize the importance of; to belittle) would have been better.

Tinman

Perhaps "play
down" (to minimize the importance of; to belittle) would have been better.
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Nah - the original intent was more like, "Stuff it!"

"tamp down" was also the performer of an old tune:

"Tamp down ladies sing dis song...
Tamp down racetrack five miles long,
Oh, doo dah day"

Who dat tamp down dere say who dat when I say who dat down dere?

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Originally posted by jerry thomas:
Who dat tamp down dere say who dat when I say who dat down dere?

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Say what?????

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"Say what?"

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Say "Who is that tramp down there who says, 'Who is that?' when I say, "Who is that down there?"

Morgan, I'm not surprised you Say What?????ed (now there's an interesting neologism!) J.T.'s post. Along with "Ain't nobody here but us chickens!", that line dates back to minstrel show days.

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Originally posted by Graham Nice:
Tamp down sounds fine. Damp down is barely literate and doesn't quite work.

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Really? Surely "damp down" is what firefighters do after they've put a fire out, to make sure it doesn't flare up again? As such, it's an ideal metaphor for what you might do if you didn't want a media frenzy to flare up again. I bet that's the word which was intended (a bit like a colleague of mine who always said "pacific" when she meant "specific").

Agreed, paul. Websters has this for one of the senses of damp:

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[b]damp[/i] - to put out, as fire; to depress or deject; to deaden; to cloud; to check or restrain, as action or vigor; to make dull; to weaken; to discourage.

To damp your tender hopes. --Akenside.

Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug." --Bacon.

How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word! --Sir J. Lubbock.

The failure of his enterprise damped the spirit of the soldiers. --Macaulay.

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Without checking, I'd think tamp is confined to compressing powders under pressure.