- do
- M.E. do, first person singular of O.E. don "make, act, perform, cause," from W.Gmc. *don, from PIE base *dhe- "to put, place, do, make" (see factitious). Slang meaning "to do the sex act with or to" is from 1913. Third person does was a Northumbrian variant in O.E. that displaced doth, doeth 16c.-17c. The pt. did is O.E. dyde, the only remainder in Gmc. of the old linguistic pattern of forming a pt. by reduplication of the stem of the present tense. Far back in Gmc. the equivalent of did was used as a suffix to make the past tenses of other verbs, hence the English -ed suffix (O.E. -de). The pp. done grew out of O.E. pp. gedon, but the only vestige of the prefix is in ado. Use as an auxiliary began in M.E. Periphrastic form in negative sentences ("They did not think") replaced the O.E. negative particles ("Hie ne wendon"). U.S. Southern use of done in phrases like "he done gone to the store" is attested from 1827, according to OED: "a perfective auxiliary or with adverbial force in the sense 'already; completely.' " Slang done for "doomed" is from 1842. Expression do or die is attested from 1620s.