Hmm, in engineering classes we were taught that dampen was not the correct term, but damp was. And all the old-timer machinists I have run into are of the same mindset. Maybe the 'authors' at the dictionary factory have taken artistic license due to common usage changes (by the commoners)... Hey, this is actually on-topic with language drift!
On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Raymond E. Feist <[email protected]> wrote: > > You don't see how to dampen vibrations because you stopped reading after the > first definition in verb, monkey boy! Seriously, besides "to make moist," it > also means "to check or retard the energy, action, etc. of: to stifle, > suffocate or extinguish; to check or retard the action of a vibrating string, > and the one that applies in physics, to cause a decrease in amplitude of > ocillations or waves. > > -- Nick A "You know what I wish? I wish that all the scum of the world had but a single throat, and I had my hands about it..." Rorschach, 1975 "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 "Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them." Bill Vaughan "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato
