don

pronunciation

How to pronounce don in British English: UK [dɒn]word uk audio image

How to pronounce don in American English: US [dɑn] word us audio image

  • Noun:
    teacher at a university of college (especially at Cambridge or Oxford)
    the head of an organized crime family
  • Verb:
    put clothing on one's body

Word Origin

don
don: see doff
don (n.)
1520s, from Spanish or Portuguese don, title of respect, from Latin dominus "lord, master." The university sense is c. 1660, originally student slang; underworld sense is 1952, from Italian don, from Late Latin domnus, from Latin dominus (see domain). The fem. form is Dona (Spanish/Portuguese), Donna (Italian).
don (v.)
early 14c. contraction of do on (see doff). "After 1650 retained in popular use only in north. dialect; as a literary archaism it has become very frequent in 19th c." [OED]. Related: Donned; donning.

Example

1. Thomas friedman argued that governments had to don the golden straitjacket of market discipline .
2. When bosses must don a disguise to learn about how their organisations really work , trouble is in store .
3. Few people , other than scholars , will be familiar with the story of the cambridge don whose study of china 's scientific history helped to change the west 's appraisal of a civilisation once thought hopelessly backward .
4. Right in the center of the " neolithic age " hall ( 6000-3000 years bc ) there is a huge boat , 7,5 m in length , found on the bank of the don in 1954 .
5. Don paterson , an editor and a poet , claimed that " a non-poet can 't do a line-edit on a poem " ; it is essential for an editor to be a poet , too .

more: >How to Use "don" with Example Sentences