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I taped two letters on the corkboard for the next writer when I left my studio at VSC. Perhaps the people maintaining the studios between residencies took them down, but I had stared at them for a month. When I arrived, I had a "to do" list with about eleven things on it. Finally, it whittled down almost all the way to one word. Stop questioning, and just do.
The referent is hidden everywhere. When looking up the word "fact", I came upon the following: late 15th century: from Latin factum, neuter past participle of facere ‘do.’
and when I wrote a line in a poem, "what mallard state of affairs," I had to figure out what I had just written and came across this: Middle English: from Old French afaire, from à faire ‘to do’
So... a fact and the current state of affairs: do, does, did, doing, done.
do/
do͞o/
verb
1. perform (an action, the precise nature of which is often unspecified).
synonyms: carry out, undertake, discharge, execute, perform, accomplish, achieve; bring about/off, engineer; pull off; effectuate
perform (a particular task).
work on (something) to bring it to completion or to a required state.
synonyms: prepare, make, get ready, see to, arrange, organize, be responsible for, be in charge of; fix; style, arrange, adjust; brush, comb, wash, dry, cut;
make or have available and provide.
synonyms: make, create, produce, turn out, design, manufacture; paint, draw,sketch;
solve; work out.
synonyms: work out, figure out, calculate; solve, resolve
cook (food) to completion or to a specified degree.
work at for a living.
synonyms: have as a job, have as a profession, be employed at, earn a living at
produce or give a performance of (a particular play, opera, etc.).
synonyms: put on, present, produce; perform in, act in, take part in, participate in
perform (a particular role, song, etc.) or imitate (a particular person) in order to entertain people.
take (a narcotic drug).
attend to (someone).
vulgar slang, have sexual intercourse with.
2. achieve or complete, in particular.
travel (a specified distance).
synonyms: travel (over), journey, cover, traverse, achieve, notch up, log; chalk up
travel at (a specified speed).
make (a particular journey).
achieve (a specified figure).
informal visit as a tourist, especially in a superficial or hurried way.
synonyms: visit, tour
spend (a specified period of time), typically in prison or in a particular occupation.
synonyms: be/have finished with, be through with, want no more to do with
informal finish.
be over.
give up concern for: have finished with.
3. act or behave in a specified way.
synonyms: act, behave, conduct oneself, acquit oneself; comport oneself
make progress or perform in a specified way; get on.
synonyms: get on/along, progress, fare, manage, cope; succeed, prosper
have a specified effect on. ("the walk will do me good")
result in. ("the years of stagnation did a lot of harm to the younger generation"
4. be suitable or acceptable.
"if he's anything like you, he'll do"
synonyms: suffice, be adequate, be satisfactory, fill/fit the bill, serve one's purpose, meet one's needs
"regular coffee will do"
5. informal beat up; kill.
ruin. ("once you falter, you're done")
rob (a place).
verb
1. used before a verb (except be, can, may, ought, shall, will ) in questions and negative statements.
"do you have any pets?"
used to make tag questions. ("you write poetry, don't you?")
used in negative commands. ("don't be silly")
2. used to refer to a verb already mentioned.
"he looks better than he did before"
3. used to give emphasis to a positive verb.
"I do want to act on this"
used in positive commands to give polite encouragement. ("do tell me!")
4. used with inversion of a subject and verb when an adverbial phrase begins a clause for emphasis.
"only rarely did they succumb"
noun
1. short for hairdo.
2. a party or other social event.
synonyms: party, reception, gathering, celebration, function, after-party, social event/occasion, social, soirée
origin
Old English dōn, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch doen and German tun, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek tithēmi ‘I place’ and Latin facere ‘make, do.’
do2
dō/
noun
1. (in solmization) the first and eighth note of a major scale.
the note C in the fixed-do system.
origin
mid 18th century: from Italian do, an arbitrarily chosen syllable replacing ut, taken from a Latin hymn.
