do

英文词源

do

do: [OE] Not surprisingly, do is a verb of great antiquity. It goes back to the Indo-European base *dhē- (source also of English deed and doom), which signified ‘place, put’. This sense remains uppermost in descendants such as Sanskrit dhāand Greek títhēmi (related to English theme), but a progression to ‘make, do’ shows itself in Latin facere (source of English fact and a host of other words) and West Germanic *dōn. ‘Make’ is now the central signification of English do, although traces of the earlier ‘put, place’ survive in such fossilized forms as don and doff, and ‘do someone to death’.

Other Germanic relatives include German tun and Dutch doen, but the Scandinavian languages have not adopted the verb, preferring instead for ‘do’ one which originally meant ‘make ready’ (Danish gøre, Swedish gåra) and which is related to English gear.
=> deed, doom, fact, fashion, theme

do (v.)

Middle English do, first person singular of Old English don "make, act, perform, cause; to put, to place," from West Germanic *don (cognates: Old Saxon duan, Old Frisian dua, Dutch doen, Old High German tuon, German tun), from PIE root *dhe- "to put, place, do, make" (see factitious).

Use as an auxiliary began in Middle English. Periphrastic form in negative sentences ("They did not think") replaced the Old English negative particles ("Hie ne wendon"). Slang meaning "to do the sex act with or to" is from 1913. Expression do or die is attested from 1620s. Compare does, did, done.

do (n.)

first (and last) note of the diatonic scale, by 1754, from do, used as a substitution for ut (see gamut) for sonority's sake, first in Italy and Germany. U.S. slang do-re-mi "money" is from 1920s, probably a pun on dough in its slang sense of "cash."