Tinker’s damn/curse/cuss

The full form of the expression is something or someone is not worth a tinker’s damn or tinker’s curse or tinker’s cuss. Take your pick. They all mean that someone or something is completely worthless. Apparently, tinkers were notorious for their habitual bad language consequently a tinker’s damn was worth nothing. The common alternative form is tinker’s curse, the American form of which is tinker’s cuss. The expression has been around since the early 19th century. The theory that the expression was originally ‘not worth a tinker’s dam’, referring to a structure or dam of clay which tinkers used to mend pots and pans that were then worthless, is nothing but folk etymology and can be safely ignored.