Where does “outdo” come from?
Outdo comes from English do, which traces through English ditto and Italian ditto to Italian detto, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European dʰeh₁- meaning to place or put.
outdo (English): To excel; go beyond in performance; surpass
Definitions
- To excel; go beyond in performance; surpass
Ancestry of “outdo”, step by step
| 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 |