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Originally Posted by fatoni
no its not. either term is perfectly correct despite the fact that dampen addresses the act with a little more specificity. its like saying "he didnt jump. he took off with one foot so it was a hop"
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Im not great at english, it is my second language. The word "dampen" (verb) and "dampening" (noun) mean to surpress or restrain and can also mean to moisten. For eg "he dampened the mood on the celebrations severely", or "he is dampening the towel".
The word "damping" is specifically used in physics to refer to the reduction of harmonic oscillations, which in our case is the shock.
So it is technically correct to refer to reduction in oscillation of a car shock as "damping".