Word: do Part of Speech: verb Etymology: 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”). Pronunciation: /də/, /dʊ/, /duː/, /d͡ʒ/, /dy/ 1. A syntactic marker. Labels: auxiliary Example: Do you go there often? 2. A syntactic marker. Labels: auxiliary Example: I do not go there often. Example: Do not listen to him. 3. A syntactic marker. Labels: auxiliary Example: But I do go sometimes. Example: Do tell us. 4. A syntactic marker. Labels: auxiliary Example: I play tennis; she does too. Example: Likes her cappuccino, Mary does. (UK, colloquial) 5. A syntactic marker. Labels: auxiliary, informal, interrogative, modal Example: Do I just call every number on the list each time? 6. A syntactic marker. Labels: auxiliary, dialectal Example: ...An' the dogs do bark, an' the rooks be a-vled to the elems high and dark, an' the water do roar at mill. 7. To perform; to execute. Labels: transitive Example: If you want something done, do it yourself. Example: All you ever do is surf the Internet. What will you do this afternoon? 8. To cause or make (someone) (do something). Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: And also my lorde abbot of westmynster ded do shewe to me late, certayn euydences wryton in olde englysshe […]; Example: Sometimes to do him laugh, ſhe would aſſay / To laugh at ſhaking off the leaues light, / Or to behold the water worke […] 9. To suffice. Labels: ambitransitive Example: make it do or do without Example: it’s not the best broom, but it will have to do; this will do me, thanks. 10. To be reasonable or acceptable. Labels: intransitive Example: It simply will not do to have dozens of children running around such a quiet event. Example: At last you spot a tempura stand. Not quite what you had in mind, but it'll do. 11. To have (as an effect). Labels: ditransitive Example: The fresh air did him some good. 12. To fare, perform (well or poorly). Labels: intransitive Example: Our relationship isn't doing very well; how do you do? Example: Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. 13. To fare, perform (well or poorly). Labels: England, especially, intransitive Example: A big framed beast takes a lot of food — expensive food at that [—] to keep it doing […] Example: That farm would go like a rick a-fire. It would do: it would go forward and prosper and make him his money. 14. To have as one's job. Labels: transitive Example: What does Bob do? — He's a plumber. 15. To perform the tasks or actions associated with (something). Labels: transitive Example: Don't forget to do your report! 16. To cook. Labels: transitive Example: I'll just do some eggs. Example: It seemed, from his account, that he was very good at doing scrambled eggs. 17. To travel in or through, to tour, to make a circuit of. Labels: transitive Example: Let’s do New York also. Example: We 'did' London to our hearts' content,—thanks to Fred and Frank,—and were sorry to go away; […] 18. To treat in a certain way. Labels: transitive Example: They did me well, I assure you—uncommon well: Bollinger of '84; green chartreuse fit for a prince; […] Example: Upon my word, although he [my host] certainly did me uncommonly well, I began to feel I'd be more at ease among the bushmen. 19. To work for or on, by way of caring for, looking after, preparing, cleaning, keeping in order, etc. Labels: transitive Example: The woman-who-did did not do very well, Juliet thought. 20. To act or behave in a certain manner; to conduct oneself. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: Vnto this day they doe after the former manners: they feare not the Lord, neither doe they after their Statutes, or after their Ordinances, or after the Law and Commaundement which the Lord commaunded the children of Iacob, whom hee named Iſrael,[…] 21. To spend (time) in jail. (See also do time) Labels: transitive Example: I did five years for armed robbery. 22. To impersonate or depict. Labels: transitive Example: They really laughed when he did Clinton, with a perfect accent and a leer. 23. To copy or emulate the actions or behaviour that is associated with the person or thing mentioned. Labels: place, transitive, usually Example: He did a Henry VIII and got married six times. Example: He was planning to do a 9/11. 24. To kill. Labels: slang, transitive Example: Case pulled the .22 out of his pocket and levelled it at Wage's crotch. “I hear you wanna do me.” Example: About a year ago, a boy name Brandon got got here in Baltimore. Stuck and burned before he passed. […] Wasn't no need for y'all to do him the way y'all did. 25. To deal with for good and all; to finish up; to undo; to ruin; to do for. Labels: slang, transitive Example: Sometimes they lie in wait in these dark streets, and fracture his skull, […] or break his arm, or cut the sinew of his wrist; and that they call doing him. 26. To punish for a misdemeanor. Labels: informal, transitive Example: He got done for speeding. Example: Teacher'll do you for that! 27. To have sex with. (See also do it) Labels: slang, transitive Example: Deme[trius]. Villaine vvhat haſt thou done? / A[aron]. That vvhich thou canſt not vndoe. / Chiron. Thou haſt vndone our mother. / Aron. Villaine I haue done thy mother. Example: […] one day I did her on the kitchen table, and several times on the dining-room table. 28. To cheat or swindle. Labels: transitive Example: That guy just did me out of two hundred bucks! Example: He was not to be done, at his time of life, by frivolous offers of a compromise that might have secured him seventy-five per cent. 29. To convert into a certain form; especially, to translate. Labels: transitive Example: the novel has just been done into English; I'm going to do this play into a movie 30. To finish. Labels: ambitransitive 31. To cash or to advance money for, as a bill or note. Labels: transitive 32. To make or provide. Labels: ditransitive, informal Example: Could you do me a burger with mayonnaise instead of ketchup? 33. To provide as a service. Labels: informal, transitive Example: Do they do haircuts there? 34. To injure (one's own body part). Labels: informal, transitive Example: "Defender Kolo Toure admitted Given will be a loss, but gave his backing to Nielsen. 'I think he's done his shoulder,' said the Ivorian." Example: "Watto will spend the entire winter stretching and doing Pilates, and do a hamstring after bending down to pick up his petrol cap after dropping it filling his car at Caltex Cronulla." 35. To take (a drug). Labels: transitive Example: I do cocaine. 36. To exist with a purpose or for a reason. Labels: transitive Example: What's that car doing in our swimming pool? 37. To drive a vehicle at a certain speed, especially in regard to a speed limit. Labels: informal, transitive Example: He was doing 50 [miles per hour] in a school zone. 38. To perform something suggested by a following noun, verb, or adjective. Labels: adjective, verb Example: did a listen do someone a frighten doing her a cute Example: Is your significant other doing you a heckin distress?