doit

See also: do it

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɔɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪt

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle Low German doyt, cognate with Middle Dutch duit. Doublet of thwaite.

Noun

doit (plural doits)

1. (historical) A small Dutch coin, equivalent to one-eighth of a stiver.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     '"You got a lot of gold off Mr. Beauclerc," says Glascock.
     '"Not a doit more than I wanted," says he, laughing again. "And who, pray, had a better right—did not I murder him?"

2. (archaic) A small amount; a bit, a jot.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 9:

     […] when they will not giue a doit to relieue a lame Begger, they will lay out ten to ſee a dead Indian: […]

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     “Speak out, ye Saxon dogs — what bid ye for your worthless lives? — How say you, you of Rotherwood?” “Not a doit I,” answered poor Wamba.

3. (music) In jazz music, a note that slides to an indefinite pitch chromatically upwards.
   • 1995, Music & Computers, volume 1, numbers 2-4, page 57:

     Jazz symbols include many contoured articulations and inflections, such as doits, fall-offs, and scoops.

Translations

small Dutch coin

• German: Deut (de) m
• Indonesian: duit (id)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Scots doit, apparently a Scots cognate of dote.

Verb

doit (third-person singular simple present doits, present participle doiting, simple past and past participle doited)

1. (Scotland, rare) To stumble; to blunder.
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:

     I trembled with astonishment; and on my return from the small window went doiting in amongst the weaver's looms, tillI entangled myself, and could not get out again without working great deray amongst the coarse linen threads that stood in warp from one end of the apartment unto the other.

Further reading

• duit on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dwa/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: doigt, doigts, dois (general), doua, douas, douât (one pronunciation)

Verb

doit

1. third-person singular present indicative of devoir: must, has to

   Il doit aller en France un jour.

   He must go to France one day.

Old French

Alternative forms

• dei
• deit
• doi

Etymology

From Latin digitus.

Noun

doit oblique singular, m (oblique plural doiz or doitz, nominative singular doiz or doitz, nominative plural doit)

1. finger (appendage)

Descendants

• Angevin: daigt
• Lorrain: dogt
• Middle French: doigt
  • French: doigt
    • Haitian Creole: dwèt
• Norman: deigt, dé
• Picard: doét
• Walloon: doet

Welsh

Alternative forms

• delet (colloquial)
• deuit (literary)
• deuet (literary)
• doet (colloquial)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɔi̯t/

Verb

doit

1. (literary) second-person singular imperfect/conditional of dod

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
doit	ddoit	noit	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.