Can you pronounce derring-do?
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Sunday, November 10, 2024
Derring-Do
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noun 1. Action displaying heroic courage.
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
Play Button "The spy novel was filled with instances of bold derring-do."
Play Button "Elizabeth dreamed of being swept off her feet by a suitor's derring-do."
Play Button "The parade honored the town's generations of veterans and their acts of derring-do."
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Middle English, late 16th century
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Why This Word?
The term "derring-do" came about through a chain of mistakes and misinterpretations. The Middle English version, "dorrying don," was a verb phrase that meant "daring to do," but it was misprinted as "derrynge do" in 16th-century writings. From there, it was mistaken as a noun by poet Edmund Spenser, who defined it as "manhood and chevalrie [chivalry]." ...
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