The truth is, unless a man can get the prestige and income of aDon and write donnish books, it’s hardly worth while for him to make a Greek and Latin machine of himself and be able to spin you out pages of the Greek dramatists at any verse you’ll give him as a cue.
An employee of a university residence who lives among the student residents.
1845 September, Charles F. Ellerman, “Reminiscences of the Island of Cuba”, inSimmonds’s Colonial Magazine, volume VI, number21, London, chapter VIII (Mrs. Smith seized withfuror scribendi, writes a lengthy Epistle to her dear Cousin Mrs. Margery Stubbs),page79:
Wo often of an evening go and hear the band in the square opposite the captin-giniral’s palace—it is here were thedons and donnas and all the fashionables assemble, and I must say it’s amusing.
1906 August, Harry H. Dunn, “Afoot in California”, inWestern Field, volume 9, number 1, San Francisco, Calif.,page481, column 1:
Time was when the walker amid California vales could stop at some cool cellar hid in these western hills and pour from great flagons a shimmering glass of cool red wine. Nowadays, the hand of the law has stepped in and spoiled all this, because the hordes of wanderers who have come west have made of these resting places questionable resorts—made of them places that the Spanishdons and donnas never dreamed of.
2019, Caleb Stewart Rossiter, “Taking the Handles: Debating History and Morality”, inThe Turkey and the Eagle: The Struggle for America’s Global Role, New York, N.Y.: Algora Publishing,→ISBN,page283:
A sustained media campaign against American domination would require the support of just a few dot-comdons and donnas or hedge fund phenoms who want to head straight for structural change and skip the reformist way stations supported by philanthropic business leaders like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ben Cohen, Gary Hirshberg, and the later[ ]Paul Newman’s family.
1886-88,Richard Francis Burton,The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night:
Now when he had reached the King's capital wherein was Alaeddin, he alighted at one of the Kháns; and, when he had rested from the weariness of wayfare, hedonned his dress and went down to wander about the streets, where he never passed a group without hearing them prate about the pavilion and its grandeur and vaunt the beauty of Alaeddin and his lovesomeness, his liberality and generosity, his fine manners and his good morals.
2022 March 23, Paul Bigland, “HS2 is just 'passing through'”, inRAIL, number953, page41:
Havingdonned our PPE, we walk through the site to the prefab that controls access to the tunnel.
Used only in a few stock maledictions such asDo dhon is do dhuais ort!,Don is duais ort!,Mo dhon is mo dhograinn ort! (all basically "bad luck to you!") andDon d’fhiafraí ort!(“Don’t be so inquisitive!”).
Afta demdon lisn di king, dem lef go we. Az dem a go bout dem bizniz so, no di sed staar we dem did si iina di Iis said kom bak agen! It galang infronta dem til it riich wich paat di pikni did de, an a uova de-so it tap.
Afterlistening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
(literally, “After theylistened to the king, they left[…]”)
Bîne nanê genimî,duhn bide, bêxe leşê min, ezê sax bim. ―Bring wheat bread, spread it withfat, put it on my body and I shall be cured [i.e., come to life again].
Chyet, Michael L. (2020) “don”, inFerhenga Birûskî: Kurmanji–English Dictionary (Language Series; 1), volume I, London: Transnational Press,page201b
Gülensoy, Tuncer (1994) “don”, inKürtçenin Etimolojik Sözlüğü [Etymological Dictionary of Kurdish][3] (in Turkish), Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, page65
Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008),Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages[4], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
FromProto-West Germanic*dōn(“to do”). The exact development of past tense formsdyde,dydest, anddydon is unexplained, for such forms have-y- instead of expected*-e- (*dede,*dedest,*dedon) from Proto-Germanic past stem*ded-/*dēd-.
Swā swā hī ǣr mid nette fixodon on sǣlicum ȳðum, swādyde Crist þæt hī siððan mid his heofonlīcan lāre manna sāwla ġefixodon; forðan ðe hī ætbrūdon folces menn fram flǣsclīcum lustum, and fram woruldlīcum ġedwyldum tō staðolfæstnysse lybbendra eorðan, þæt is tō ðām ēċan ēðle, be ðām cwæð sē witega þurh Godes Gāst, "Iċ āsende mīne fisċeras, and hī ġefixiað hī; mīne huntan, and hī huntiað hī of ǣlċere dūne and of ǣlċere hylle."
As they before with a net had fished on the sea waves, so Christcaused them afterwards by his heavenly lore to fish for the souls of men; for they withdrew the people from fleshly lusts, and from worldly errors to the stability of the earth of the living, that is, to the eternal country, of which the prophet, through God's Spirit, said, "I will send my fishers, and they shall fish for them; my hunters, and they shall hunt them from every down and from every hill."
Old English does not havedo-support. Whiledōn does have auxiliary function in Old English, such uses are purely causative, equivalent to modern "to make" or "to cause to" (as per sense 2 above). Therefore, when asking "do you hate me?", one would sayhatast þū mē? (literally "hatest thou me?"), notdēst þū mē hatian? (which would instead mean "do youmake me hate?").
There are some emphatic uses ofdōn that bear some resemblance to do-support constructions, often involving theǣġþerġe ("both ... and ...") construction and other verbs in apposition, although the apposed verbs are finite rather than infinitives. In such contexts,dōn is generally better translated with "to be", and the apposed verbs with participles or adjectives as necessary:sē cattdēþ ǣġþer ġe slǣpð ġe wacaþ ("the catis both asleep and awake", or if translated with do-support, "the catdoes both sleep and be awake").
Dōn can be used as apro-verb (i.e. standing in for another verb, generally replacing one that was previously mentioned to avoid repetition), like the modern verb:Hatast þū mē swā swā hēodēþ? ("Do you hate me like shedoes?")
Euino el ppħa iſaẏas e dixo al reẏ ezechiasdõ uinieron eſtos barones. ⁊ q̃ te dixieron dixo el de tierra de luen uinieron de babilonia.
And the prophet Isaiah came and said to king Hezekiah, “Where did these men come from, and what did they say to you?” He said, “From a distant land. They came from Babylon”.
Both from the shortening of the earlierdonnu(“master, sir”) or fromLate Latindom, ultimately fromLatindomnus >dominus(“master, owner”), itself fromdomus(“a house”).
Like with the English word "knack",don can be used to describe a positive gift or talent, or a negative one like a bad habit or a neutral tendency to do something.
Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium. Particularly: “đon seems to be an alternative form ofdon; cf.đĩa anddĩa,đa andda, etc. Anyway, can't find anything Nôm-related so maybe a recent loan?”
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page36
