deed

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dede, inherited from Old English dǣd (“deed, action”) (Anglian dēd),^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Proto-Germanic *dēdiz.^[4][6][7] Its cognates are Old Frisian dēde, Old Saxon dād, Dutch daad, Old High German tāt (German Tat), Old Norse dáð and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌳𐌴𐌸𐍃 (gadēþs, “a putting, placing”).^{[3][8][9][10][7]} The Germanic noun continues Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁tis (“a thing laid down or done”),^[8][4] from the root of do, Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”);^[8][6][2] Etymonline compares Lithuanian dėtis (“load, burden”) and Ancient Greek θέσις (thésis, “a placing”), the source of thesis.^[8][9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something that is done, an act: Old English, in the Vespasian Psalter;^[10] Barnhart cites dæd in Beowulf, about 725.^[3] An act of bravery or skill, a feat, is also in Beowulf,^[10] and action in general, often contrasted with words, in Ælfric's Grammar.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, a written document that carries out a transfer of property or creates an obligation, is recorded from about 1300, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle,^[10][8] and Hoad dates it to the 14th century;^[4] Weekley compares the parallel sense of act.^[11] The phrase in deed, in fact or in truth, from about 1405 in Chaucer, became the adverb indeed,^[10][11] and deed itself came back as a Scots shortening of indeed (1816 in Scott).^[10][5] Middle English used the Deeds of the Apostles for the Acts (c1380–1533).^[10] The verb, to transfer property by deed, began in American English: Merriam-Webster dates it to 1758, Etymonline to 1806 and the OED to 1816, in John Pickering's Vocabulary of Americanisms.^[12][8][10] In East Yorkshire dialect deed meant a fuss or to-do (1788).^[10] Johnson (1755) gave the senses "action, whether good or bad", "exploit, performance" and "written evidence of any legal act".^[13] To do the deed, to have sex, appears in Marlowe's translation of Ovid before 1593.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 725 – dæd, an act (Beowulf).^[3]
• c. 1300 – (law) a written instrument.^[10][8]
• c. 1405 – in deed, in fact (Chaucer).^[10]
• a1593 – do the deed, to have sex.^[14]
• 1758 – verb: to convey by deed.^[12]
• 1788 – (dialect) a to-do.^[10]
• 1816 – the Scots adverb deed, indeed; the verb in the OED.^[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Something done deliberately; an act: a kind deed.
2. A notable achievement or exploit; a feat: tales of the knights' deeds.
3. Action as opposed to words: loyal in word and deed.
4. (law) A signed legal document, especially one transferring the ownership of property.

Verb

1. (US, Canada) To transfer property by deed.

Word family

• deedless
• deedy
• indeed
• misdeed
• redeed
• undeeded
• quitclaim deed

Related words

• do
• doom
• thesis
• theme

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com