*dōn

Reconstruction

Ringe and Taylor reconstruct the infinitive *dōn for Proto-West Germanic,^[1] and Wiktionary has the same form.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *dōną (“to do, to put”),^[2][3] which Kroonen cites as the irregular verb *dōn-, Köbler as *dōn, *dēn, *dǣn, and Boutkan and Siebinga as *dōanaN.^[3][4][5] Ringe and Taylor hold that in Proto-West Germanic the verb had an athematic present with *ō throughout: the indicative was *dōmi, *dōsi, *dōþi, third plural *dōnþi; the vowel of the subjunctive had contracted with that of the root to a stem *dō-; and the infinitive and present participle were *dōn and *dōndī.^[6] Hogg and Fulk assume that in West Germanic *dō-an the long vowel was shortened before the vowel that followed, giving *do-an before the hiatus was resolved, a variation they find in the Old Saxon spellings ⟨duan⟩ and ⟨duon⟩ beside ⟨doan⟩ and in Old Frisian dwā.^[7]

Morphology

An anomalous, athematic verb.^[8][3] Ringe and Taylor's Proto-West Germanic paradigm has the present indicative *dōmi, *dōsi, *dōþi, plural *dōm, *dōþ, *dōnþi, the subjunctive *dō, *dōs, plural *dōm, *dōþ, *dōn, the imperative *dō, *dōþ, and perhaps an inflected infinitive *dōnijē.^[9] In the past indicative they set up *dedā, *dedēs or *dādī, *dedē or *-ā, plural *dādum, *dādud, *dādun, a past subjunctive *dādī, and perhaps a past participle *dān.^[10] The alternation of the originally reduplicating syllable of the past stem, well attested in the southern languages, must be inherited, though *ded- may have competed with it.^[11] The athematic first singular in -m of Old High German tuom "I do" spread widely to other verbs with stems in a long vowel.^[12]

Evidence

The verb is attested in Old English dōn, Old Frisian dwā, Old Saxon dōn, Old Dutch duon and Old High German tuon.^[8] Fulk counts the survival of *dōn as an independent verb among the features that set West Germanic apart from East and North Germanic,^[13] and Kroonen gives reflexes from West Germanic only.^[3] Two past forms are found in the South Germanic runic inscriptions: pre-Old Saxon ⟨dede⟩ "did" on the bones from the Weser near Brake, dated about 400–450,^[14] and pre-Old High German ⟨dedun⟩ "they did" on the capsule of Schretzheim, about 560–610, in ⟨alaguþ leuba dedun⟩ "Alagunth [and] Leuba did", where the object of the doing is not named.^[15] The comb of Oostum in Groningen, of the 8th or 9th century, has ⟨deda⟩ "did, made",^[16] which ONW records under the Old Dutch verb.^[17]

Competing analyses

Ringe and Taylor find the prehistory of the verb hard to recover.^[18] They reject Hill's derivation of the Germanic present from the Indo-European aorist subjunctive, because the contracted vowel would have had to be levelled into forms that never had it, and because the athematic first singular *dōmi would have had to take its ending from another paradigm.^[18] For the past participle they think it likelier that Proto-Germanic *dēnaz gave Proto-West Germanic *dān, and that the *ō of the northern forms, so far as it is not the regular outcome of *ā before a nasal, came from the present stem, than that the *ā of the southern forms came from the past stem *dād-.^[19] Düwel, Nedoma and Oehrl derive the Weser ⟨dede⟩ from Proto-Germanic *-dai^[15] and separate it from Old Dutch ⟨deda⟩ and Old High German teta, which go back through West Germanic *-dā to Proto-Germanic *de-dǣ(d).^[14]

For the Old English past dyde, Ringe and Taylor see the only possible source of the vowel in the past subjunctive, pre-Old English *dudī, although no other Germanic language has *u there.^[6] Hogg and Fulk instead take it for a new preterite formed in pre-Old English from the shortened present stem *du- with the endings of the weak verbs of class I.^[7]

Meanings

1. to do^[1][2]
2. to put, to place^[2]

Old English also used the verb for "to make", "to cause", "to set", "to lay" and "to give",^[8] Old Saxon for "to make" and "to put",^[20] and Old Frisian for "to give", "to bring" and "to cause".^[21]

Derivatives

• *dādi "deed": Ringe and Taylor trace it from Proto-Germanic *dēdiz through Proto-Northwest Germanic *dādiz,^[22] and Kroonen takes Proto-Germanic *dēdi- for a ti-stem from the same root as *dōn-.^[23]
• *dōm "judgement", the descendant of Proto-Germanic *dōmaz in Wiktionary;^[24] Kroonen takes *dōma- for a mo-stem from the same root.^[3]

Reflexes

• Old English: dōn (“to do, to make, to cause, to put, to place”)^[8]
• Old Frisian: dwā (“to do, to give, to bring, to make, to cause”)^[21]
• Old Saxon: dōn (“to do, to make, to put”)^[20]
• Old Dutch: duon (“to do”)^[17]
• Old High German: tuon (“to do, to make, to work, to create”)^[25]

References

1. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 109
2. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dōn
3. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 98
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *dōn, *dēn, *dǣn
5. ^ Boutkan, Dirk; Siebinga, Sjoerd Michiel (2005), Old Frisian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 1, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. dwa
6. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 369
7. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 315
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dōn
9. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 109–110
10. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 110
11. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 111
12. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 161
13. ^ Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 13
14. ^ a b Düwel, Klaus; Nedoma, Robert; Oehrl, Sigmund (2020), Die südgermanischen Runeninschriften, 2 vols, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 119, Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. SG-134
15. ^ a b Düwel, Klaus; Nedoma, Robert; Oehrl, Sigmund (2020), Die südgermanischen Runeninschriften, 2 vols, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 119, Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. SG-105
16. ^ Looijenga, Tineke (2003), Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. Oostum
17. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. duon
18. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 112
19. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 520
20. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dōn
21. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. dwā
22. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 149
23. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 92
24. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dōmaz
25. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tuon