One way to hold dampen: a damp cloth laid over something. Water in small amounts does not destroy what it touches — it takes the sharpness out of it. Lay it on a fire and the fire stops burning . Lay it on a drum and the drum stops ringing. Nothing here is stopped or removed; it is only turned down, because something has soaked up the energy that was in it.
From the word’s history
The supplied source gives the word as damp plus the ending -en, which forms verbs meaning to make something become that way. So dampen is literally to make damp, and the two other senses can be read as that same wet cloth laid on a feeling or on a sound.
來源給的字源很直接：damp 加上 -en。-en 這個字尾的作用是「使變成那樣」。所以 dampen 字面上就是「使變濕」。另外兩個意思，都可以當成同一塊濕布，只是蓋的對象換成了情緒，或換成了聲音。
Wiktionary entry for dampen (kaikki extract supplied in the evidence packet, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:288559670): From damp + -en.
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