Etymologically
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undo

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English undon,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English undōn, also ondōn and andōn,[5][3][6] formed from Old English un- + dōn (“to do”), with the prefix expressing reversal.[5][7][3][4] The OED counts it among the words inherited from Germanic:[5] it is cognate with Old Frisian unddua, Middle Dutch ontdoen and its descendant ontdoen, Old Saxon antduan, Middle Low German entdôn, Old High German intuon and Middle High German entuon.[5][8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To unfasten and open a door, gate or window: the OED's first record is in the Old English translation of Orosius, dated about 893 in its first edition.[5][11] Etymonline gives the Old English verb the senses "to cancel, reverse what has been done", "to unfasten and open" and "to bring to ruin, destroy".[7] Bosworth–Toller arranges the Old English uses from opening what is closed and releasing what is bound to annulling or destroying what has been done.[6]

Semantic evolution

The physical senses came first in the record: opening a box or sack and untying or unfixing something are also Old English, and some, such as opening the mouth or eyes and unbinding a prisoner, died out in the 15th and 16th centuries.[5] In Middle English the verb could also mean to cut up an animal or cut something open.[5] From the 13th century it also meant to explain or expound, a sense now obsolete;[9][12] Chaucer and Gower used it for "explain, disclose" as well as "open, untie".[13] The sense of bringing a person to ruin goes back to Old English,[7][9] and the participle undone, ruined, is recorded from the 14th century.[9] Johnson (1755) put "to ruin; to bring to destruction" first among its senses.[14] Unfastening a person's clothing is recorded from 1633.[5] Mapping Metaphor traces how the language of taking something apart was extended to revoking what has been done, already in Old English, and to making something clear in the 14th century.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 893 – to unfasten and open a door or gate.[11][5]
  • Old English – to annul, reverse what has been done; to ruin.[7][9]
  • c. 1150 – first Middle English record of the verb as undon and related forms.[2][4]
  • 13th century – to explain or expound (now obsolete).[9]
  • 14th century – the participle undone, ruined.[9]
  • 1633 – to unfasten the clothing of a person.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To open or loosen something by releasing its fastening; to untie, unbutton or unwrap: She undid her coat and sat down.[4][12][16]
  2. To reverse the effects of something done; to cancel or annul: No apology can undo the damage.[4][12][16]
  3. To bring about the ruin or downfall of: A single scandal undid his career.[4][12][16]
  4. To upset the composure of; to throw into confusion.[4][16]
  5. To come open or unfastened.[16][4]
  6. (obsolete) To explain or solve.[12][9]

Word family

  • undoer
  • undoable
  • undone
  • undoing
  • do
  • un-
  • undue

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
  16. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin