Doth

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic third-person singular present form of the verb to perform, used in older English in place of the modern word for he, she or it acting
2. Old-fashioned verb form meaning he, she or it performs an action, once common in religious texts, poetry and early English literature
3. Archaic singular present-tense ending of the verb meaning to act or perform, used with third-person subjects in historical English writing

Etymology: "Doth" is an inflected form, the archaic third-person singular present of "do", so its story is really the story of "do" itself. That verb descends from Old English "dōn", which goes back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to put, place, do, make". The same root gave English "deed", "deem" and "-dom" as doublets, and through Latin and Greek it produced "feast", "theme" and "thesis", so "do" is related to words that have little obvious resemblance to it. Stranger still is the little helper "do" in sentences like "Do you like painting?" and "Yes, I do". Some linguists think this use was calqued from Brythonic, the Celtic language family of Britain, and it first appears in Middle English. Early Modern English stripped it of any meaning, turning it into a dummy auxiliary, and its use soon became mandatory in most questions and negations.

Synonyms: perform, execute, accomplish, complete

Antonyms: omit, neglect, fail