Derring do - not 'daring'

[Cooroo]

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

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

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.

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."