*dōną

Reconstruction

The infinitive is *dōną in Wiktionary and Ringe, who also allows *dō-ną,^[1][2] with the present stem *dō-;^[3] Kroonen cites *dōn-, Orel *đōnan, Köbler *dōn beside *dēn and *dǣn.^[4][5][6] Ringe stresses that the verb can be reconstructed only inferentially, since only West Germanic keeps it.^[7]

Etymology

It is from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, to place”), the PIE verb "to put":^[4][1][7] Ringe notes that its meaning shifted to "make" and then to "do".^[8]

Morphology

An athematic verb.^[4][3] Ringe reconstructs the present indicative singular *dōmi, *dōsi, *dōþi, plural *dōmaz, *dōþ, *dōnþi, from the athematic forms of Anglian Old English and Old High German such as the first person Old High German tuom.^[3][9] The past *ded- ~ *dēd-, as in *dedǭ "I did", continues the PIE imperfect of the reduplicated present, and is the source of the weak past suffix in all branches.^[8][7] The past participle was strong, *dēnaz or, less likely, *dōnaz.^[2] Kroonen calls it irregular, Orel a strong verb, and Mailhammer a reduplicating verb with an accepted IE etymology.^[4][5][10]

Evidence

As an independent verb it is found only in West Germanic: Old English dōn, Old Frisian dwā, Old Saxon dōn and Old High German tuon.^[4][9] It was replaced by Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (taujan) and by Old Norse gøra.^[9] Fulk counts its survival as an independent verb among the features of West Germanic.^[11] Its past, however, lives on in the weak past suffix of all the branches: Gothic -𐌳𐌰 (-da), Old Norse -ða and Old English -de.^[8]

Competing analyses

Kroonen sees an athematic present with the o-grade, found only in Germanic, perhaps parallel to the a-grade of *ganganą, where the other languages have a reduplicated present with the e-grade.^[4] Orel compares, among others, Ancient Greek τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”), Latin faciō (“to do, to make”) and Lithuanian dėti (“to put”).^[5] Wiktionary takes the present from the PIE aorist *dʰéh₁t, calling the o-grade unexpected, and the past from the imperfect *dʰédʰeh₁ti.^[1] Ringe finds that the present stem *dō- has no known PIE source: none of the proposals is free of problems, and the present Hittite dāi reflects a suffixed *dʰoh₁-i-.^[9] Boutkan, following Kortlandt, traced most of the weak past endings to an aorist paradigm of the verb "to do".^[12]

Meanings

1. to do, to make^[1][4][6]
2. to put, to place^[1][6]

Old English used the verb also for "to cause", "to give" and "to place".^[13]

Derivatives

• *dēdiz "deed, action", a ti-stem to the same root.^[14][15]
• *dōmaz "judgement", a mo-stem to the same root.^[4][16]
• With prefixes, in Köbler: *andōn "to open", *bidōn "to close" and *fardōn "to ruin".^[17][18][19]

Reflexes

• Old English: dōn (“to do, to make, to put”)^[13]
• Old Frisian: dwā (“to do, to make, to give”)^[20]
• Old Saxon: dōn (“to do, to make”)^[21]
• Old High German: tuon (“to do, to make”)^[22]

Gothic and Old Norse have no form of the verb.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dōną
2. ^ a b Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 295
3. ^ a b c Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 294
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 98
5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 73
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *dōn
7. ^ a b c Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 219
8. ^ a b c Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 182
9. ^ a b c d e Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 185
10. ^ Mailhammer, Robert (2007), The Germanic Strong Verbs: Foundations and Development of a New System, Trends in Linguistics 183, Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter, p. 224
11. ^ Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins
12. ^ Boutkan, Dirk (1995), The Germanic 'Auslautgesetze', Leiden Studies in Indo-European 4, Amsterdam / Atlanta: Rodopi
13. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. dōn
14. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 92
15. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dēdiz
16. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dōmaz
17. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *andōn
18. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *bidōn
19. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *fardōn
20. ^ Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. dwā
21. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dōn
22. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tuon