Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Pedants' corner

Derring do - not 'daring'

3 replies

Cooroo · 01/03/2014 09:48

Just heard 'daring do' on radio 4 who should know better. I'm sure I'm right but really ought to look up derivation!

OP posts:
chateauferret · 01/03/2014 13:53

"Derring do" is correct, I think it's just a preserved archaic form though.

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 01/03/2014 14:08

You're quite right. These transgressions are always much more annoying when they occur on radio 4, which once was and ought to be again a bastion of grammatical perfection.

WMittens · 01/03/2014 17:42

Interestingly enough:

"originally (late 14c.) dorrying don, literally "daring to do," from durring "daring," present participle of Middle English durren "to dare" (see dare (v.)) + don, infinitive of do (v.). Misspelled derrynge do 1500s and mistaken for a noun by Spenser, who took it to mean "manhood and chevalrie;" picked up from him and passed on to Romantic poets as a pseudo-archaism by Sir Walter Scott."

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread