do: [OE] Not surprisingly, do is a verb of great antiquity. It goes back to the Indo-European base *dhē- (source also of English deed and doom), which signified ‘place, put’. This sense remains uppermost in descendants such as Sanskrit dhāand Greek títhēmi (related to English theme), but a progression to ‘make, do’ shows itself in Latin facere (source of English fact and a host of other words) and West Germanic *dōn. ‘Make’ is now the central signification of English do, although traces of the earlier ‘put, place’ survive in such fossilized forms as don and doff, and ‘do someone to death’.
Other Germanic relatives include German tun and Dutch doen, but the Scandinavian languages have not adopted the verb, preferring instead for ‘do’ one which originally meant ‘make ready’ (Danish gøre, Swedish gåra) and which is related to English gear. => deed, doom, fact, fashion, theme
do (v.)
Middle English do, first person singular of Old English don "make, act, perform, cause; to put, to place," from West Germanic *don (cognates: Old Saxon duan, Old Frisian dua, Dutch doen, Old High German tuon, German tun), from PIE root *dhe- "to put, place, do, make" (see factitious).
Use as an auxiliary began in Middle English. Periphrastic form in negative sentences ("They did not think") replaced the Old English negative particles ("Hie ne wendon"). Slang meaning "to do the sex act with or to" is from 1913. Expression do or die is attested from 1620s.
Compare does, did, done.
do (n.)
first (and last) note of the diatonic scale, by 1754, from do, used as a substitution for ut (see gamut) for sonority's sake, first in Italy and Germany. U.S. slang do-re-mi "money" is from 1920s, probably a pun on dough in its slang sense of "cash."
双语例句
1. Look, you've typed " do " as'so " , and made nonsense of the whole sentence.
瞧, 你把do打成了so, 这样一来句子就不通了.
来自《简明英汉词典》
2. Beauty is an attitude. It has nothing to do with age.
美是一种态度，与年龄无关。
来自金山词霸
3. The best thing to do when entering unknown territory is smile.
踏入未知地带最好的对策就是微笑。
来自美剧《凯莉日记》
4. Failure is never quite so frightening as regret do.
比失败更令人恐惧的是懊悔。
来自金山词霸 每日一句
5. For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
