Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗A syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be. · A syntactic marker in negations with the indicative and imperative moods. · A syntactic marker for emphasis with the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods. · A syntactic marker that refers back to an earlier verb and allows the speaker to avoid repeating the verb; in most dialects, not used with auxiliaries such as be, though it can be in AAVE.
A party, celebration, social function; usually of moderate size and formality. · Clipping of hairdo. · Something that can or should be done. · Something that has been done.
From Middle English don, from Old English dōn, from Proto-West Germanic *dōn, from Proto-Germanic *dōną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do, make”). For senses 4 and 5, compare Old Norse duga, also Northern English dow. The past tense form is from Middle English didde, dude, from Old English dyde, *diede, an unexpected development from Proto-Germanic *dedǭ/*dedē (the expected reflex would be *ded), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰédʰeh₁ti, an athematic e-reduplicated verb of the same root *dʰeh₁-. The meaningless use of do in interrogative, negative, and affirmative sentences (e.g. "Do you like painting?" "Yes, I do"), existing in some form in most Germanic languages, is thought by some linguists to be one of the Brittonicisms in English, calqued from Brythonic. It is first recorded in Middle English, where it may have marked the perfective aspect, though in some cases the meaning seems to be imperfective. In Early Modern English, any meaning in such contexts was lost, making it a dummy auxiliary, and soon thereafter its use became mandatory in most questions and negations. Doublets include deed, deem, and -dom, but not deal. Other cognates include, via Latin, English feast, festival, fair (“celebration”), via Greek, English theo-, theme, thesis, and Sanskrit दधाति (dadhāti, “to put”), धातृ (dhātṛ, “creator”) and धातु (dhātu, “layer, element, root”).
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentiondonenm
- Inherited-form mentiondonang
- Inherited-form mention*dōngmw-pro
- Inherited-form mention*dōnągem-pro
- Derivation mention*dʰeh₁-ine-pro
- Cognate mentionduganon
- Cognate mentiondowen
- Inherited-form mentiondiddeenm
- Inherited-form mentiondydeang
- Inherited-form mention*dedǭgem-pro
- Inherited-form mention*dʰédʰeh₁tiine-pro
- Cognate mentionfeasten
- Cognate mentiontheo-en
- Cognate mentionदधातिsa
This page abbreviates 39 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "wp",
"args": {
"1": "do-support"
},
"expansion": ""
},
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:don<id:to do>"
},
"expansion": "[Appendix:Glossary#inherited|Inherited]] from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*dōną\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-West Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*dōn\", \"lang\" : \"gmw-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"dōn\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"don\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"do\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"do\">"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "don"
},
"expansion": "Middle English don"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "don",
"4": "dōn"
},
"expansion": "Old English dōn"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*dōn"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *dōn"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*dōną"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *dōną"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*dʰeh₁-",
"4": "",
"5": "to put, place, do, make"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do, make”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "non",
"2": "duga"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse duga"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "dow"
},
"expansion": "English dow"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "didde"
},
"expansion": "Middle English didde"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "dyde"
},
"expansion": "Old English dyde"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*dedǭ"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *dedǭ"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*dʰédʰeh₁ti"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *dʰédʰeh₁ti"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "feast"
},
"expansion": "English feast"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "theo-"
},
"expansion": "English theo-"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sa",
"2": "दधाति",
"3": "",
"4": "to put"
},
"expansion": "Sanskrit दधाति (dadhāti, “to put”)"
},
{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:don<id:to do>"
},
"expansion": ""
}
],
"links": [
[
"don",
"don#Middle_English"
],
[
"dōn",
"don#Old_English"
],
[
"*dōn",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/dōn"
],
[
"*dōną",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/dōną"
],
[
"*dʰeh₁-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/dʰeh₁-"
],
[
"duga",
"duga#Old_Norse"
],
[
"dow",
"dow#English"
],
[
"didde",
"didde#Middle_English"
],
[
"dude",
"dude#Middle_English"
],
[
"dyde",
"dyde#Old_English"
],
[
"*diede",
"Reconstruction:Old English/diede"
],
[
"*dedǭ",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/dedǭ"
],
[
"*dedē",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/dedē"
],
[
"*dʰédʰeh₁ti",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/dʰédʰeh₁ti"
],
[
"*dʰeh₁-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/dʰeh₁-"
],
[
"Brythonic",
"Brythonic"
],
[
"perfective",
"perfective"
],
[
"imperfective",
"imperfective"
],
[
"deed",
"deed#English"
],
[
"deem",
"deem#English"
],
[
"-dom",
"-dom#English"
],
[
"deal",
"deal#English"
],
[
"feast",
"feast#English"
],
[
"festival",
"festival#English"
],
[
"fair",
"fair#English"
],
[
"theo-",
"theo-#English"
],
[
"theme",
"theme#English"
],
[
"thesis",
"thesis#English"
],
[
"दधाति",
"दधाति#Sanskrit"
],
[
"धातृ",
"धातृ#Sanskrit"
],
[
"धातु",
"धातु#Sanskrit"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"A syntactic marker in a question whose main verb is not another auxiliary verb or be.",
"A syntactic marker in negations with the indicative and imperative moods.",
"A syntactic marker for emphasis with the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods.",
"A syntactic marker that refers back to an earlier verb and allows the speaker to avoid repeating the verb; in most dialects, not used with auxiliaries such as be, though it can be in AAVE."
],
"tags": [
"auxiliary"
],
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"sourceRecordOrdinal": 26807
},
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A party, celebration, social function; usually of moderate size and formality.",
"Clipping of hairdo.",
"Something that can or should be done.",
"Something that has been done."
],
"tags": [
"UK",
"informal",
"abbreviation",
"alt-of",
"clipping",
"obsolete"
],
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"sourceRecordOrdinal": 26808
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 39,
"glosses": 0
}
}