Word Confusion: Done versus Dun

Posted June 7, 2018 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Ach, now ye done dun it. Ye’ll have ta run, laddie.

Run before that editor comes after ye fer having done it, don’t ye see.

And now that I’m done having some fun with done versus dun, we’ll get serious and git ‘er done.

Sorry, slipped up. It just came to me as I typed. Couldn’t resist. But we’ll get done and through this post, lest you dun me with snarky comments, lol.

This pair are heterographs (a subset of homophone).

Word Confusions…

…started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.

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Done	Dun
Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Dictionary.com: done; Merriam-Webster: done in, done with; Oxford Dictionaries: done; Free Dictionary.com: dun
Gone Barbecuing by Mats Lindh is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Yep, looks well done to me.	Roan Dun by Ernst Vikne is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
Part of Grammar:
Root word: do Adjective ¹, ²; Exclamation ²; Verb ²; Verb, helping ² Third person present verb: does Past tense: did Past participle: done Gerund or present participle: doing	Adjective ³; Noun ³, ⁴, ⁵; Verb, transitive ⁴ Plural for the noun and third person present verb: duns Past tense or past participle: dunned Gerund or present participle: dunning
Completed (This post is strictly about the past participle of do.) Adjective: [Of food] Cooked thoroughly ¹ No longer happening or existing Finished Through Worn out ² Exhausted Used up [British; informal] Socially acceptable In conformity with fashion, good taste, or propriety Acceptable Exclamation: Used to indicate that the speaker accepts the terms of an offer Verb: [US; informal] Nonstandard past tense for performing an action Verb, auxiliary (helping): [South Midland and Southern US; informal] Nonstandard past tense used with a standard past tense verb to indicate absoluteness or completion	Demand money Adjective: Of a dull grayish-brown color ³ [Literary] Dark or dusky Gloomy Noun: A dull grayish-brown color ³ A horse with a sandy or sandy-gray coat, black mane, tail, and lower legs, and a dark dorsal stripe A sub-adult mayfly, which has drab coloration and opaque wings [Fishing] An artificial fishing fly imitating a dun fly [Archaic; finance, banking] Debt collector or an insistent creditor ⁴ A demand for payment, especially one in writing [Archeology] A stone-built fortified settlement in Scotland or Ireland, of a kind built from the late Iron Age to the early Middle Ages ⁵ A frequent place-name element in Scotland and Ireland Verb, transitive: Make persistent demands on someone, especially for payment of a debt Cure by salting [Nonstandard dialect] Done
Examples:
Adjective: The turkey will be done soon. Jamie likes his steak well done. There was nothing George could do. He was done in. Helene thought it was done for, but after some thought, she realized it could be salvaged. Her hunting days were done. Dude, it’s a done deal. Let us have done with character assassination. I am done with you. Is my car done yet? Therapy was not the done thing then. It isn’t done. My dear, it simply isn’t done. In populations where drinking cows’ milk is not the done thing, lactose intolerance is still the norm. Exclamation: “I’ll give ten to one he misses by a mile!” called Reilly. “Done,” said the conductor. Done! Yessiree, you gots yerself a done deal. Verb: I done a lot of rodeoin’. Laughing, Bert said, “Baby, I’m done for.” He was really done in after a close race. He was a businessman done in by greed. That’s done it. Verb, auxiliary (helping): I done told you so. He done eat his lunch. I done told you to zipper your lips.	Adjective: Have you read Walter Wangerin’s The Book of the Dun Cow yet? When the dun evening comes, so will my depression. She was a small dun pony and seemed a good buy. Marjorie looked out over the dun and motionless sky. Noun: Dun. Dun was the color of his trousers. Ah, that Gibbie, she was a fine dun mare. I picked up a few duns for the morning. Not getting that job meant debts and duns. “Many a dun had she talked to, and turned away from her father’s door…” – William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair We’ve uncovered an Iron Age dun! The Dun Fort is the ancestral seat of House Darklyn in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series. Dundee, Dumbarton, Dungannon, Dumfries, Donegal, Dundalk, and Dundrum are all place-names derived from dùn. Verb, transitive: They would very likely start dunning you for payment of your taxes. They’ll dun him from morning ’til night. You must dun Frank Murphy to pay up his grocer’s bill. We’ll dun the codfish when they bring in the catch. Oh, now you dun it. Dun’t he know you love another?
Derivatives:
Adjective: half-done Noun: doneness	Adjective: dunner, dunnest, dunning Exclamation: dunno Noun: dunness Verb: dunnit
History of the Word:
¹ In the adjectival sense of completed, finished, through, done dates from the 14th century and is entirely standard. ² Old English dōn is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch doen and the German tun, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek the tithēmi meaning I place and the Latin facere meaning make, do	³ Old English dun, dunn is of Germanic origin and probably related to dusk. ⁴ Early 17th century from the obsolete Dunkirk privateer, from the French port of Dunkirk. ⁵ Late 18th century from the Irish dún, the Scottish Gaelic dùn meaning hill or hill fort.

Done

Dun

Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Dictionary.com: done; Merriam-Webster: done in, done with; Oxford Dictionaries: done; Free Dictionary.com: dun

A gray plate of burned meat on a wooden slatted hexagonal table

Gone Barbecuing by Mats Lindh is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.

—

Yep, looks well done to me.

Norway's smallest horse has a pale beige body with dun tail and mane

Roan Dun by Ernst Vikne is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Part of Grammar:

Root word: do

Adjective ¹, ²; Exclamation ²;
Verb ²; Verb, helping ²

Third person present verb: does
Past tense: did
Past participle: done
Gerund or present participle: doing

Adjective ³; Noun ³, ⁴, ⁵; Verb, transitive ⁴

Plural for the noun and third person present verb: duns
Past tense or past participle: dunned
Gerund or present participle: dunning

Completed

(This post is strictly about the past participle of do.)

Adjective:
[Of food] Cooked thoroughly ¹

No longer happening or existing

Finished
Through

Worn out ²

Exhausted
Used up

[British; informal] Socially acceptable

In conformity with fashion, good taste, or propriety
Acceptable

Exclamation:
Used to indicate that the speaker accepts the terms of an offer

Verb:
[US; informal] Nonstandard past tense for performing an action

Verb, auxiliary (helping):
[South Midland and Southern US; informal] Nonstandard past tense used with a standard past tense verb to indicate absoluteness or completion

Demand money

Adjective:
Of a dull grayish-brown color ³

[Literary] Dark or dusky
Gloomy

Noun:
A dull grayish-brown color ³

A horse with a sandy or sandy-gray coat, black mane, tail, and lower legs, and a dark dorsal stripe

A sub-adult mayfly, which has drab coloration and opaque wings

[Fishing] An artificial fishing fly imitating a dun fly

[Archaic; finance, banking] Debt collector or an insistent creditor ⁴

A demand for payment, especially one in writing

[Archeology] A stone-built fortified settlement in Scotland or Ireland, of a kind built from the late Iron Age to the early Middle Ages ⁵

A frequent place-name element in Scotland and Ireland

Verb, transitive:
Make persistent demands on someone, especially for payment of a debt

Cure by salting

[Nonstandard dialect] Done

Examples:

Adjective:
The turkey will be done soon.

Jamie likes his steak well done.

There was nothing George could do. He was done in.

Helene thought it was done for, but after some thought, she realized it could be salvaged.

Her hunting days were done.

Dude, it’s a done deal.

Let us have done with character assassination.

I am done with you.

Is my car done yet?

Therapy was not the done thing then.

It isn’t done.

My dear, it simply isn’t done.

In populations where drinking cows’ milk is not the done thing, lactose intolerance is still the norm.

Exclamation:
“I’ll give ten to one he misses by a mile!” called Reilly. “Done,” said the conductor.

Done! Yessiree, you gots yerself a done deal.

Verb:
I done a lot of rodeoin’.

Laughing, Bert said, “Baby, I’m done for.”

He was really done in after a close race.

He was a businessman done in by greed.

That’s done it.

Verb, auxiliary (helping):
I done told you so.

He done eat his lunch.

I done told you to zipper your lips.

Adjective:
Have you read Walter Wangerin’s The Book of the Dun Cow yet?

When the dun evening comes, so will my depression.

She was a small dun pony and seemed a good buy.

Marjorie looked out over the dun and motionless sky.

Noun:
Dun. Dun was the color of his trousers.

Ah, that Gibbie, she was a fine dun mare.

I picked up a few duns for the morning.

Not getting that job meant debts and duns.

“Many a dun had she talked to, and turned away from her father’s door…” – William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

We’ve uncovered an Iron Age dun!

The Dun Fort is the ancestral seat of House Darklyn in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series.

Dundee, Dumbarton, Dungannon, Dumfries, Donegal, Dundalk, and Dundrum are all place-names derived from dùn.

Verb, transitive:
They would very likely start dunning you for payment of your taxes.

They’ll dun him from morning ’til night.

You must dun Frank Murphy to pay up his grocer’s bill.

We’ll dun the codfish when they bring in the catch.

Oh, now you dun it.

Dun’t he know you love another?

Derivatives:

Adjective: half-done
Noun: doneness

Adjective: dunner, dunnest, dunning
Exclamation: dunno
Noun: dunness
Verb: dunnit

History of the Word:

¹ In the adjectival sense of completed, finished, through, done dates from the 14th century and is entirely standard.

² Old English dōn is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch doen and the German tun, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek the tithēmi meaning I place and the Latin facere meaning make, do

³ Old English dun, dunn is of Germanic origin and probably related to dusk.

⁴ Early 17th century from the obsolete Dunkirk privateer, from the French port of Dunkirk.

⁵ Late 18th century from the Irish dún, the Scottish Gaelic dùn meaning hill or hill fort.

C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them…and we’ll all benefit!

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