Where does “can-do” come from?
can-do (English) comes from English do, from English ditto, from Italian ditto, from Italian detto, from Latin dictus, from Latin dīcō, from Latin -tiō, from Latin dissertātiō — small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble.
can-do (English): Confident and willing to get a job done
Definitions
- Confident and willing to get a job done
Ancestry of “can-do”, step by step
can-do traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English do
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | do | A syntactic marker |
| 2 | English | ditto | That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the... |
| 3 | Italian | ditto | — |
| 4 | Italian | detto | past participle of dire; past participle of... |
| 5 | Latin | dictus | said, uttered; mentioned, spoken, having been... |
| 6 | Latin | dīcō | to say, talk, speak, utter, mention |
| 7 | Latin | -tiō | tion, -ation, -ing |
| 8 | Latin | dissertātiō | (spoken) dissertation, discourse, disquisition |
| 9 | Latin | dissertus | arranged, disposed; explained |
| 10 | Latin | disserere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 11 | Latin | dis- | asunder, apart, in two; reversal, removal;... |
| 12 | Latin | calceus | shoe |
| 13 | Latin | calx | limestone; chalk; the finish line |
| 14 | Ancient Greek | χάλιξ | small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble |
via English can
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | can | To know how to; to be able to; May; to be... |
| 2 | Spanish | can | dog, hound |
| 3 | Latin | Canis | a dog, a hound animal |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | δρόμος | race, running; racetrack; course, path |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | -ός | Forms agentive or patientive adjectives and nouns from the o-grade of a verbal root |
| 6 | Proto-Hellenic | *-os | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ós | Creates agent nouns from verb stems, denoting... |